Parties should rise above politics on tackling population growth: BJP

The BJP said on Monday that political parties should rise above partisan politics to take the right steps on the issue of population growth as everyone's future is linked to it.

After a United Nations report projected that India will surpass China to become the world's most populous country next year, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said this issue is not merely his party's but that of every aware citizen of India.

"Definitely, from the common man to political parties, which should rise above partisan politics, everyone should move in the right direction on the issue," he said at a press conference.

While Trivedi did not refer to the demands by some groups for a law to curb population growth, senior party leader and Union minister Giriraj Singh, who has been a vocal supporter of such legislative measures, favoured a stringent law.

The "demon" of rising population is preventing the country from becoming "vishwa guru" (world leader), he said in a tweet, suggesting that China has left India behind on development metrics due to its success in controlling its population.

"We should not look at the issue through the prism of religion or caste but the country," he said, demanding a tough law to curb population growth.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also flagged the issue in the past. In his independence day speech in 2019, he expressed concern over the "population explosion" in the country, saying it causes innumerable challenges for the coming generations.

The Union Health Ministry had recently discounted the possibility of law, saying the awareness campaign for checking the population growth has worked. It had noted that the rate of growth has been consistently declining.