Even as the BJP has pulled up Unnao MP Sakshi Maharaj for his controversial statement that Hindu women should give birth to “at least four children”, the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Assam has felicitated a couple for having eight children, with the organization also hailing the couple as Vasudev-Daivaki ( parents of Lord krishna) of modern times.
The couple in focus is Sushanta Nath and Malati Nath of Srikona in Cachar district in southern Assam, and the occasion was a Hindu sammelan and yajna during which achievers in various fields were honoured. “Yes, I was present there when the couple was felicitated. It is true that such couples who produce more children will help maintain the demographic balance in our country’s population. Otherwise the Hindus will soon be reduced to a minority,” said Dinesh Upadhyaya, VHP’s organizing secretary for the Northeast.
“There is nothing to be surprised or raising a hullabaloo over this. The Cachar district (VHP) committee has considered it right to felicitate Sushanta Nath and his wife for a unique feat at a time when Hindu couples are restricting their number of children to two and in some cases even one. In fact this is what is a matter concern because some other communities are producing many children,” Upadhyaya, talking to The Indian Express said.
Sushanta and Malati Nath were also hailed as a “patriotic couple” with VHP leaders like Upadhyaya and Swami Nirmayananda of Bharat Sevashram asking other couples to emulate what this couple has shown. The VHP’s sammelan and yajna, held at the Subhashnagar playground in Silchar also felicitated some other persons who had excelled in fields like education, society, agriculture, sports, and culture etc.
Swami Nirmayananda in fact went one step ahead and said children were gifts of god and Hindus have to treasure them to maintain their majority. “Children are gifts of god. Hindus should treasure them in order to be numerically stronger. If not, then they will be reduced to a minority in 20 years,” he said in the function.
Assam has been witnessing a drastic demographic change in the last few decades, with the Muslim population now standing at more than 30 per cent of the total. Though religion-wise data of the Census of 2011 are yet to be released, Muslims are in a majority in at least six of the 27 districts, including in two of the Barak Valley districts that share boundary with Bangladesh.
Interestingly, the VHP or other organizations of the sangh parivar are not the first to have given a “wake up call” to Hindus in the Northeast. In 2006, a tribal council promoting indigenous faith in Meghalaya had launched a scheme to reward those with large families. In February 2014, a Meghalaya minister even tried to encourage large families in order to avail more foodgrains under the Food Security Act.
– Thanks to Indian Express
