Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has issued an apology for his controversial remarks about the role of women’s education in population control. Kumar made the comments during a session in the state Assembly, where he explained the drop in Bihar’s fertility rate from 4.2 to 2.9 percent. However, his language was heavily criticized by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who called it “shameful,” “disgusting,” and “vulgar.”
Following the backlash, National Commission for Women chief Rekha Sharma demanded that Kumar apologize for his remarks. In response, the Chief Minister offered his apology, stating, “If my words were wrong, I apologize. If anyone got hurt, I take them back.”
However, Kumar faced further protests in the Assembly, with opposition leaders making noise and challenging his explanation. In response, he shouted back, “Why are all of you making noise? I told you… you saw, the reporters asked me and I gave an explanation.”
The controversy surrounding Kumar’s remarks continued to escalate, but he found support in his deputy, Tejashwi Yadav, who defended him by claiming that the Chief Minister was referring to sex education in schools. Yadav clarified, “Let me clarify something… whatever the Chief Minister said was about sex education. People become hesitant over this topic… but it is taught in schools. He said what needs to be done practically…”
Aside from the controversy over his remarks, Kumar’s government also faced uproar in the Bihar Assembly as they presented the caste survey report and proposed to increase quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and Extremely Backward Classes. The proposal aimed to raise the quotas from 50 percent to 65 percent, surpassing the 50 percent cap set by the Supreme Court in 1992. The revised quotas, along with the center’s 10 percent for Economically Weaker Sections, would accommodate the findings of the caste report, which indicated that 36 percent of Bihar’s population belongs to Extremely Backward Classes and 27.1 percent to Other Backward Classes.
In conclusion, Nitish Kumar’s apology for his controversial remarks on women’s education and population control has sought to address the criticism and backlash. While the controversy continues, his deputy’s defense claims that the Chief Minister was referring to sex education in schools. Additionally, the Bihar government’s proposal to raise quotas for marginalized communities has sparked further uproar in the state Assembly.
