Yogi’s population policy just a desperate ploy to polarise electorate ahead of UP assembly polls

If West Bengal is repeated in Uttar Pradesh polls in 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi might have to book a 2024 ticket to Vadnagar, Gujarat. The pressure is on Yogi Adityanath. A month and a half ago, his political obituary was being written. But he was given a reprieve, and since then he has been selling a brand of ‘Hindutva’ more virulent than any sold by other Hindutva aficionados.

The bottom-line is: Yogi Adityanath has to deliver Uttar Pradesh to Modi. And he’s trying stuff that Modi wouldn’t touch with a barge pole a year ago. For example, the magnum opus, a population policy designed for Uttar Pradesh. Earmarked for UP’s Muslim minority, say opposition leaders.

Curiously enough, the Union government was against “involuntary methods in family planning” till about a year ago. The Modi government told the Supreme Court on December 12, 2020 that “international experience showed that any coercion to (only) have a certain number of children would be counterproductive and lead to demographic distortions.”

Now, the Yogi Government has torn asunder the demographic fabric and the Muslims see coercion, solely to polarise for electoral dividends.

In December 2020, the Modi Government told the apex court, “The family planning programme in India is voluntary in nature, which enables couples to decide the size of their family and adopt family planning methods best suited to them, according to their choice, without any compulsion", adding that states should take the “lead” in deciding population policy.

At that time, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath did not take the hint. Today, a year later, with Narendra Modi presumably still smarting at the BJP’s humiliating defeat in West Bengal, the Yogi is all for population curbs, ostensibly to enable development. So, the two-child norm and all the benefits thereof to the husband and wife who adhere to the norm.

Fail to follow suit and the neck is on the line. Lots of government-allotted benefits will be out the window including the right to contest local elections. A third child will be persona non-grata, not admitted into the family ration card!

The fact is that population growth rates of both Hindu Indians and Muslim Indians have slid over the past decade and there isn’t much of a difference between the two. In fact, not just Muslim clergies but also the Vishwa Hindu Parishad don’t like Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s proposed population policy.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath released his population policy on July 11, World Population Day, and set a target to bring birth rate to 2.1 per thousand population by 2026, and to 1.9 per thousand population by 2030. The current fertility rate of Uttar Pradesh is 2.7%.

Meanwhile, Assam’s BJP Chief Minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma has also come with his version of population policy.

There’s no denying that population impacts development and puts pressure on resources, but are the BJP and the Modi Government sincere when it comes to placing curbs on population? Are they doing it for development, or is it just an eyewash to fool the electorate, building up to the crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly elections?

Hindutva radicals don’t believe Narendra Modi anymore. Period. And Modi has come to know this. Yogi Adityanath is replacing Narendra Modi in the Hindutva votary’s feverish dream. It’s very unlikely that Narendra Modi or Amit Shah or even Yogi himself is unduly worried about birth rates. This is just another ploy/play to overcome the handicap that came with the West Bengal defeat, and Narendra Modi's fading aura.

(IPA Service)

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