No stranger to provocative rhetoric, BJP MP from Unnao Sachidanand Hari Sakshi alias Sakshi Maharaj has landed in another controversy. The Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday booked him for hurting religious sentiments through an “objectionable” speech in which he allegedly blamed the Muslim community for the population-related problems arising in the country.
The Uttar Pradesh Election Commission also took notice of his controversial remarks and summoned a report from the administration in Meerut where the leader made the remarks while speaking at a religious function on Friday.
Without taking names, the MP said a particular community, which spoke of “four wives and forty children,” was responsible for the population-related problems in the country. Mr. Sakshi demanded a “common and fine law” to codify the number of children one should be allowed to produce, saying, the increasing population was posing problems for the country.
“If problems are arising in the country due to population, Hindus are not responsible for that. Sakshi Maharaj for one is not responsible...us all four brothers are sanyasis. Responsible are those who talk of four wives ad forty children,” he said. “Hindu ghata toh desh bata (If Hindu population decreases, the country will split),” he said.
The saffron leader, who is a prime accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case, said the customs of “four wives” and “triple talaq” should not be allowed anymore. “We say four wives and forty children won’t do, won’t do, won’t do...it is not the time for four wives and forty children. Women are not machines. Women should be respected, be they Hindu or Muslim,” said Maharaj, a four-time Lok Sabha MP.
SSP Meerut Ravidra Gaur said the along with Mr. Sakshi, the organizer of the event, Mahendra Das, was also booked for he had no permission to hold a “political” function. “It was a religious function and they had no permission to make political statements so we have also named the organizers in the FIR,” Mr. Gaur told The Hindu.
The FIR was registered at the Sadar Bazaar police station after the police took cognizance of the incident and lodged it on the complaint of sub-inspector Ram Kumar. Sakshi Maharaj and the organizers have been booked under various clauses of the Indian Penal Code — 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), 153 B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 298 (uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 505 (statements of public mischief) and 171 F (punishment for undue influence or personation at an election).
A Meerut district official also confirmed that a report of the event had been sent to UP Chief Election Officer T. Venkatesh. “The organizers had no permission to organize such an event,” the official said.
Earlier this week, the EC enforced the Model code of conduct in the State for the Assembly elections.
Later in the day, Sakshi Maharaj sought to clarify his remarks claiming he did not target any community but stuck to his argument of population control. He said he “should get a reward” as he was a bachelor. “I had said the population of the country has climbed to 132 crore but the land is not increasing. There is a need for control. People need to come of the jatigat khichad (generic mud) and start respecting women. Mothers are not machines. Triple talaq will not work anymore, nor will four wives and 40 children,” he told a news agency.
Sakshi Maharaj faces eight other criminal cases, including for murder, promoting enmity between groups, criminal conspiracy and defiling places of worship.
