BJP doling out 'half-truths' on Bihar population control: JD(U) leader

JD(U) MLC Neeraj Kumar also rejected Jaiswal’s claims linking high population to Bihar's backwardness

The ruling JD(U) in Bihar does not seem aligned with ally BJP’s stance on population control.

Days after Bihar BJP Chief Dr Sanjay Jaiswal suggested the JD(U)-led state government reward those with only two kids to control the state’s population; the JD(U) has alleged that BJP is misleading the masses on the issue, according to a report in The Indian Express.

“The BJP has been giving out half-truths on the population of Bihar,” JD(U) MLC Neeraj Kumar told the paper.

Jaiswal had suggested providing 25 kg free ration and Ayushman Health cards as an incentive to all who have only two children. Earlier, JD(U) chief and the state's chief minister Nitish Kumar had rejected the Centre’s plan to introduce a population control law.

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Neeraj Kumar also reiterated the CM’s emphasis on “education and awareness” to bring down the population and asked the BJP to first answer why the party-led NDA had rejected incentives to promote the two-child norm during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

“The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had set up a population control commission that recommended giving benefits to those government officials who have no more than two children. But the NDA government shot down the idea and gave preference to education,” Kumar told the publication.

He further said that it is wrong of the BJP to blame Muslims for population growth citing the difference between the Muslim and Hindu fertility rate, which “has come down from 1.10 in 1992 to 0.36 in the latest health survey”.

“As per National Family Health Survey, Bihar’s fertility rate in 2019-21 was 2.98 against 3.41 in 2015-16. But it is a fact that in 2019-21, the fertility rate dipped fastest in Bihar after Nagaland, at 0.43 against the national average of 0.20,” Kumar said.

He also rejected Jaiswal’s claims linking high population to Bihar's backwardness and said, “Blaming high population density for state’s backwardness is fallacious. After all, Kerala has a higher population density than Bihar and it has managed to put its fertility rate in control.”