New Delhi: Union minister Giriraj Singh on Saturday said that at the time of "Partition based on religion", it was not ensured that "only followers of Sanatana Dharma" stayed back in India.
The BJP leader reacted to the controversial remarks about the Hindu community, made by Assam leader Badruddin Ajmal while responding to the BJP’s demands for a law for population control.
"The country was divided in the name of religion. Had it been then ensured that only those who believe in Sanatana Dharma would stay back in India, we would not have to put up with abuses of people like Badruddin and (AIMIM chief) Asaduddin Owaisi", the Union Rural Development and Panchayati Raj minister told reporters in his Lok Sabha constituency of Begusarai, as reported by the news agency PTI.
Giriraj Singh maintained that the country needed to control population growth, he also challenged "Badruddin and his ilk to speak up against China, which has for years had a strong population control law in place. The neighbouring country had a GDP lower than ours till as recently as the late 1980s. Look where they have reached now".
"China’s population law exempted nobody, including Muslims of that country. We are home to 20 percent of the world’s population even though our territory is just 2.5 percent of the total land mass across the globe. We simply cannot achieve sustainable economic growth unless we take steps to control population growth", Singh asserted.
(With PTI Inputs)