Hyderabad, July 25 -- Venkat Parsa

Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the precursor of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), along with the various affiliates of the Sangh Parivar, its spiritual mentor, were in the forefront of a smear campaign to run down and discredit the Family Programme in the eyes of the people, at a time when Indira Gandhi gave it a determined push, especially during the Emergency between 1975 to 1977.

Ironically, the BJP was determined to run down the Family Planning Programme, when it was most needed; while espousing its cause, when the population explosion has not only stabilized but even plateaued.

It appears, the BJP is talking not Population Policy but is talking Population Politics; and that, too, in states with sizable minorit...