New Delhi: Every Indian family should have three children in order to maintain societal health and the new generation should prepare for this, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said Thursday.
Speaking at a lecture series, 100 years of Sangh’s journey—New Horizons, Bhagwat said here that to ensure that our population remains at a healthy rate of reproduction, every Indian family should have three children.
The population rate of every community is reducing, he warned. The Hindu growth rate began to reduce earlier than the others, so it shows up more starkly, but, in reality, every community’s population has been reducing, added Bhagwat.
While India’s national population policy recommends every family have 2.1 children, he said the number should be rounded off to three, not two.
“Duniya mein sab shastra kehte hain ki janma dar teen se kam jinka hota hai woh dheere dheeri lupt ho jaate hain. Teen se upar maintain karna chahiye (all scriptures in the world say that any society which has less than three children, goes extinct; so, every family should maintain over three children),” he said.
Moreover, he said that doctors say that one should not delay marriages, and have three children. This helps the parents and children have good health, and the children learn ego-management, he added.
However, there is also a concern that the population should not become a liability because everyone has to be fed, he said. This is why the population should be controlled, yet adequate, he asserted, saying therefore there should be three children, not more than that.
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‘Do not give employment to illegal migrants’
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat also said a demographic imbalance is a matter of concern, not just in India, but in all countries. He added that India, too, has experienced the perils of demographic change and imbalance in the past, in the form of Partition.
According to him, the increase in the number of a specific community is not as much of a concern as the intention behind this increase. “It is the intention that leads to suspicion,” he said.
Adding that conversion is not part of Indian tradition, Bhagwat further said that even Indian Islam does not support conversion. If someone wishes to return to, or change their religion, it should not be due to temptation or force, but their free will, he said.
While Bhagwat emphasised that Akhand Bharat is a reality, he said there should be curbs on illegal immigration. “I say that our DNA is the same, but if that is the case, come after taking due permission, and not illegally,” he said, seemingly alluding to “illegal” migration from Bangladesh. “Don’t flout rules and come,” he said.
Even though Akhand Bharat is a reality, nation-states are a reality, and their rules should be followed, he asserted.
Urging Indians not to employ “illegal” migrants, he said that if anyone wanted to employ Muslims, they should employ Indian Muslims, but not “illegal” migrants.
Bhagwat’s comments come days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government plans to create a high-powered mission to address the challenge of the “well-planned conspiracy” to change the country’s demography, in his Independence Day address.
‘Akhand Bharat a reality’
Akhand Bharat is a reality, no matter how many people choose to deny this, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said Thursday. Those who deny it have not been spiritually or materially happy since the day of Partition, he said, alluding to Pakistan and Bangladesh.
“If you sever an arm from its body, it will become numb,” Bhagwat said, insinuating that Pakistan and Bangladesh were parts of Bharat.
“We are culturally the same and have the same motherland,” he added. “However, Akhand Bharat is not necessarily political because even when the country stayed united, there were several states, kingdoms, and boundaries within the landmass.”
“Khandit Bharat” is a function of people being in slumber, and they are bound to wake up, he said.
‘Name places after Muslims, not attackers’
Reiterating his earlier stand on Hindus and Muslims having the same DNA, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said that Indian Muslims and Christians have different ways of worship. But their identity and ancestors are similar to those of Indian Hindus. “We are not a federation of societies, but we are one people,” he said.
Muslims and Christians should agree that they are Bharatiya, not European or Arab or Turkish, he added. “I have said earlier that Islam has been here and will remain,” said Bhagwat. “Those who want Islam to go away are not Hindus.”
Asked if the RSS supports the change in names of cities or roads to remove names with Islamic roots, Bhagwat said the will of the people should be honoured in this regard.
The names of ‘attackers’, however, should not be used, he said. As people began to cheer, he said he did not mean that names with Islamic roots should not be in use. Names, such as Abdul Hamid and Abdul Kalam Azad, should be used, he said, adding, “The question is not of religion, but deshbhakti (patriotism).”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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