Patna,(BiharTimes): Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s recent remarks that Dalit youths should marry outside their castes and thus increase their population to become a “political strength” has been strongly criticized by the BJP leader and former deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi.
Even some senior leaders of his own party have some reservations over his remarks.
Speaking at a function at a welfare hostel in Patna on Thursday evening, he advised Scheduled Caste youths to go for more and more inter-caste marriages. “If we take our population from 15 to 22 per cent, we will become a political force. Any party that gets 22 per cent votes can come to power. What I am saying has political meanings,” he was quoted as saying.
The Bihar chief minister was clearly referring to Uttar Pradesh, which has around 22 per cent Dalit population and thus helped Mayawati become chief minister several times.
However, Sushil Modi asked how can a state chief minister speak like this? He said though he welcomes inter-caste marriages, yet what it has to do with population increase. Manjhi has spoken against population control policy, he added.
SuMo also said that Manjhi’s statement was “bereft of logic as Dalits already have good fertility rate”. When the country is talking about population control, the chief minister is talking of increasing it for political purpose, he regretted.
The national spokesperson of Janata Dal (United) K C Tyagi also differed with the chief minister’s statement. He said “though we laud his statement on inter-caste marriages, as they were promoted even by Mahatma Gandhi, we do not subscribe to his opinion on population increase.”