Indian MP who urged Hindu women to have 4 children remains defiant

New Delhi: Sakshi Maharaj, the controversial BJP lawmaker, remains defiant over his contentious sermon to Hindu women to give birth to at least four children each to increase the Hindu population of the country and protect their religion.

The saffron clad MP, elected from Unnao constituency of Uttar Pradesh, was served a show-cause notice by the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday, asking him to explain why action should not be taken against him.

“I have not received any such notice,” the MP told media at the railway station soon after he reached Delhi.

“I have just come to Delhi. If a notice was sent, my office would have received it. It is an internal matter. Why is the media intruding,” he said angrily.

He called the police and asked them to clear his bungalow when newsmen chased him to his official residence asking if he would express remorse and retract his contentious statement. The notice was issued to him on the instructions of party president Amit Shah who is said to be annoyed with Maharaj for his comments and landing the BJP in trouble.

Sakshi Maharaj had created a stir late last year by terming Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse as a patriot.

Despite repeated warnings by the party and Prime Minster Narendra Modi, several BJP lawmakers continue to make irresponsible and out of contest statements. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, the saffron clad minister in the Modi government, had put the BJP into problem by terming non-Hindus as illegitimate children of India, prompting the prime minister to say that he would not tolerate this and warn the BJP lawmakers not to cross the line.

Yet another saffron clad MP, Yogi Adityanath, continues to cause trouble to the BJP by issuing statements in favour of those accused of converting Muslims and Christians to Hinduism.

Sources in the BJP say that some kind of action is possible against Maharaj so as to tame the fundamentalist elements in the party and use it as a warning that BJP would not tolerate those going against the party line.

“Sakshi Maharaj’s comments are not welcome. His views contradict those of the government and derail development,” Uttar Pradesh BJP president Laxmikant Bajpai said.

The rival Congress party criticised the BJP and Modi over failure to rein in such elements. “Sakshi Maharaj is symbolic of politics of division and communalism being practised by the BJP. Prime Minister Modi was supposed to rein in such remarks. Mild action against such MPs is not enough,” Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.