Statement issued by
Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, President, BJP

Congress must break its silence on Population Control debate

The Bharatiya Janata Party would like the UPA government to break its silence over public statements by certain office-bearers of the All India Muslim Personal Board that militate against India's national population policy. It is unfortunate that they have disowned an earlier positive statement on the subject by the Board's own vice president. These leaders of the AIMPB have said that population control measures are "un-Islamic" and "anti-Islamic". This is truly baffling.

Most Muslim countries in the world have made population control a national policy. The Government of Pakistan is concerned that its nearly 3% rate of growth of population is among the highest in the world. It has a national family planning association, which conducts widespread awareness programmes to popularize the country's population control objectives. The Government of Iran has implemented strong population control measures, which have succeeded in reducing the rate of growth by more than half in 10 years. Indonesia and Malaysia also have intensive population control programmes.

The BJP welcomes many voices from within the Muslim community that have supported the country's population control goals. However, it is a matter of concern that the UPA government has maintained deliberate silence on this issue after the recent release of religion-based demographic figures by the Census Commission. Worse, the Congress party is finding fault with the Census Commission for having released this data. Also, it has criticized the BJP for bringing this important national issue to the centrestage of national debate. This is yet again example of how competitive pseudo-secularism practiced by the Congress, communist parties, RJD, Samajwadi Party and others has made them turn a blind eye to population control, which is an urgent national imperative.

The BJP appeals to all well-meaning persons in society and in the political establishment to debate the issue of population control by rising above narrow party and religious considerations.

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Insult to the National Anthem

The Bharatiya Janata Party condemns the Congress-led Government in Kerala for its insult to the National Anthem. For two consecutive years, the Kerala government has omitted mention of 'Gujarat' from the National Anthem printed in school textbooks. When the BJP unit in the state protested against the scandalous omission, the state government gave an assurance that it would be corrected.

It is difficult to believe that a printing error could have occurred for two consecutive years. Rather, we see this to be a part of the deliberate vilification of Gujarat, which pseudo-secular parties have been conducting on a sustained basis. Their vilification campaign has now reached such a perverse level that they have now distorted even the National Anthem.

The BJP believes that such shocking things are happening because, under the current leadership of the Congress party, a message has gone down the entire governmental system - at the Centre and also in the states - that nothing about nationalism is any longer sacrosanct. First the Congress leadership conspired to have Sushri Uma Bharati imprisoned for defending the citizens' right to hoist the National Flag at a public place on Independence Day. Then it insulted a National Hero like Veer Savarkar. Now comes the insult to Gujarat through a deliberate distortion of the National Anthem.

The BJP demands an apology from the Kerala government and an explanation from the Congress leadership for this insult to the National Anthem.

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BJP demands probe into all land allotment decisions since 1947

The BJP takes strong exception to the politically motivated decision of the Union Ministry of Urban Development to order an enquiry into the allotment of land in New Delhi to various social, religious, cultural and educational institutions by the NDA government.

The NDA government did the right thing by allotting, for the first time, land in the capital to several nationalist organizations engaged in useful educational, social and cultural activities.

If there has to be an enquiry, let there be one that goes into all the land allotment decisions of the various Congress and Congress-supported governments since 1947. For that would show how the Congress party has grabbed land for itself, its various affiliates and institutions floated by pro-Congress and pro-Communist elements. It would show, for example, how the Congress secured prime sites for institutions named after Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.