Bottom-line: 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, for whom Muslim minority is ‘votebank’ just as the Hindu fringe is vote-bank for the BJP.

The point is 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.”

Therefore, Yogi’s focus is on the binary: How many Hindus are there in India, and how Muslims are there in India? Of course, Hindus outnumber Muslims by scores of crores. But that’s not the issue. The issue is the Hindu and Muslim population growth rate, separately calculated.

Both Hindus and Muslims and the particular political parties which bank on one or the other are dead against placing curbs on population growth of this or that people. The secular parties wouldn’t tolerate curbs on the Muslim demography, the BJP/Shiv Sena wouldn’t sit through any coercion on the population growth of the Hindus.

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.

Then, at that time, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath did not take the hint. Today, a year later, with Narendra Modi still snorting out defeated electoral dust, 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! Poor kid, for no fault of his/her. Congress leader Salman Khurshid says the Yogi should come clean, disclose how many “legitimate and illegitimate” children his MLAs had?

Forget that, will Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath come out with the number of children each one of his ministers and BJP MLAs have – ‘hum do hamaare do’ or are they in breach of the ‘Nirodh norm’? Of course, Nirodh has competition these days, and the ‘government rubber’ comes both ribbed and smooth. Yogi Adityanath wouldn’t know because he is ‘Sant’ and celibate, both!

Also, Yogi and Modi wouldn’t know of the joys of fatherhood. The closest Modi came to ‘hum do, hamaare do’ was when former Congress President Rahul Gandhi referred to the Modi-Shah-Ambani-Adani foursome as ‘hum do, hamaare do’. That was in a wholly different context and the best explanation will come from the farmers ringing Delhi like Saturn’s rings.

Levity apart, the fact is 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 busting into bedrooms! The VHP says a two-child norm and very soon the Hindus will be swamped.

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%. Assam’s BJP Chief Minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma has also come with his version of population policy and the VHP has no objections to it.

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 is unduly worried about quick-fire pregnancies in the Muslim camp, neither he nor Amit Shah, or even Yogi Adityanath. This is just another ploy/play to overcome the handicap that came with the West Bengal defeat, and Narendra Modi's fading aura. Blame it on Mamata Banerjee. (IPA Service)