The BJP leader said two of his long-cherished dreams — the scrapping of Kashmir’s special status and the order to construct Ram Temple in Ayodhya — have been recently fulfilled.
“It’s time I take retirement from politics as two of my wishes have been fulfilled. I will make an exit the day a bill is enacted to control population,” he said.
Mr Singh, a minister of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries in the Narendra Modi-led government, had been pitching for a stringent legislation to control the burgeoning population in the country.
He had thanked the Assam government when it came out with its two-child policy, which entailed that people with more than two kids will not be eligible for government jobs in the northeast state.
Opposing the move, Lok Sabha member and president of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), Badruddin Ajmal, had said the Assam government’s policy would not stop Muslims from producing children.
Taking a dig at the Assam parliamentarian, Mr Singh said, “Is Islam a factory to produce children?”
The BJP MP, at a Delhi seminar in September, had likened India’s growing population to “second-stage cancer” and called for strong measures to control it.
Prasanta Patnaik