Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Stalin wants young people to have children soon after wedding
The TN Chief Minister and DMK president said a higher population appeared to be the criterion to get more MPs
Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday favoured young people having children immediately following marriage and said a higher population appeared to be the criterion to get more MPs.
Addressing a wedding, Stalin, also the DMK president, said that years ago, newlyweds were advised to not have children immediately following marriage.
However, the same thing must not be advised now and also there was no need for that. It is because a situation has now arisen, according to which only a higher population would ensure more MPs as the delimitation exercise would be on the basis of population, Stalin said.
Tamil Nadu paid attention to population control and succeeded and that was the reason for the State’s plight today, he added. “I will not tell you to not have children hastily, have children immediately; but give them beautiful Tamil names,” he said, directly appealing to the bride and bridegroom.
On October 21, 2024, Stalin had said that the Lok Sabha delimitation exercise may make people to think about raising “16 children,” alluding to a Tamil saying on 16 kinds of wealth. Last year, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu urged people of his state to have more children; spoken of new policies to encourage people to have more children.
Also, Naidu had said that an individual could become a sarpanch, municipal councillor or a Mayor only if he/she has more than two children. Flagging falling birthrates, Naidu, had said India should not repeat the mistakes committed by other countries such as South Korea and Japan, where birthrates have plummeted.
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister in his address said that the question of delimitation is related to State’s rights and protecting its interests and hence, the matter must not be evaluated politically. The Union government was planning to implement the three-language policy through compulsion and similarly, in the delimitation exercise, it is attempting to cut down the number of seats for Tamil Nadu, Stalin alleged, addressing the function here.
Against this background, an all-party meeting was organised on March 5 in Chennai on the proposed delimitation exercise and most parties out of 40 have confirmed their participation and a few others have said they would not be taking part.
Appealing to such parties, the chief minister said they should not evaluate the issue through the prism of politics. BJP and former Union Minister G K Vaasan-led TMC (Moopanar) were the key parties that have said they would not take part in the meeting.
“I would like to appeal to them, please give a thought to it, this is not an issue between the DMK and your party,” Stalin said. The issue is all about Tamil Nadu and its interests and rights and hence parties that have declared that they would not take part should also participate, he appealed.
