It appears Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is going crazy on increasing population in the state and the families having more than two children.
Recently, the Naidu government adopted a legislation in the state assembly and council removing the two-child norm for contesting the local body elections, thereby giving an opportunity to those having more than two children also to contest the elections.
One could understand his argument that just because a person had more than two children, he should not be denied an opportunity to contest the elections.
In this regard, he also advocated the theory of people having more children in Andhra Pradesh in view of increasing population of old-age persons.
He pointed out that compared to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the southern states are experiencing a population decline.
He observed that IT sector couples are not focusing on having children and mentioned that even he has started reflecting on this issue.
Naidu urged teachers to explain these aspects to parents and create awareness about the positive aspects of having children.
He suggested that increasing the population would enable the state to excel in 2047 and called for discussions on population management.
So far so good. But on Thursday, Naidu came up with yet another strange proposal.
Speaking about the declining population, he stated that the government might introduce a rule disqualifying candidates without at least two children from contesting local body elections. He emphasized that such measures are necessary to avoid falling behind.
Naidu recalled the earlier law disqualifying individuals with more than two children from contesting elections, which was relevant at the time. Now, he emphasized the need for at least two children for election eligibility.
This is a ridiculous proposal, as it would deny an opportunity to people having one child or no child for various reasons to contest the elections.
“Some people might prefer to remain unmarried. Some others prefer to have only one child. And for some, they might not have any child due to medical issues. How can Naidu deny them a chance to contest the elections?” an analyst asked.
He argued that one can have restrictions on the maximum number of children but one cannot impose restrictions on the minimum number of children.
“How can Naidu say that every person should have at least two children for contesting the elections? This will not stand in the court of law,” the analyst argued.
