A viral message claiming Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve has warned of an impending civil war after the passage of important bills such as Population Control Bill, is fake and has been falsely attributed to the senior advocate.
BOOM reached out to Harish Salve's office which confirmed that the message is fake. Further, BOOM found evidence contrary to what is being shared in the message.
The alarmist message in Hindi is being shared by right-wing users on Facebook. The message claims that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party will get a majority in the Rajya Sabha this November, following which it will pass 25 bills, one of which will be a Population Control Bill.
This will likely be followed by a civil war in India between what the message implies will be religious factions on Hindu and Muslim lines, and calls for street and neighbourhood-level organisation among Hindus counter the same, else the future of Hindus would be at stake.
While the message originally started off in Hindi, BOOM received an English version of the message on its WhatsApp tipline (7700906588).
The messages can be seen below.
FactCheck
Alongside Salve's denial of this claim, here's what BOOM found to show that this claim is incorrect.
1. BJP's majority in the Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha is the upper and permanent House of Parliament.
While the BJP has maintained a full simple majority in the Lok Sabha, the lower house, the party is still short of a majority in the Rajya Sabha, though its numbers have been increasing gradually. Therefore, in order to pass legislation through the Rajya Sabha, the BJP often has to rely on its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies or parties that vote with the government.
The Rajya Sabha has 245 seats, and a majority mark of 123.
However, data from the Rajya Sabha show that the BJP has only 96 seats as of today, April 30.
An estimates put the BJP's number as 101 seats after the latest round of elections concluded to the Rajya Sabha early March. The NDA has a whole has 117 seats according to these estimates, which is still below the majority mark.
The fall though (96 in the given data and 101 in these estimates) is due to several members retiring in the months in March and April. Currently, 15 seats in the Rajya Sabha lay vacant.
This is unlike the claim, which states that the BJP will hit a majority of 123 seats, that's another 17 seats from its current position, till November. A big jump in the BJP's tally from this level seems unlikely till 2024, and it will largely depend on its performance in states like Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh this year and Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh next year.
2. A Population Control Bill will be introduced
It remains uncertain as to what the source of the claim is for saying that a Population Control Bill is in the works, as the government has publicly stated that it does not support any form of population coercion or restriction, as Indian fertility is naturally declining.
However, several states, like Uttar Pradesh and Maharastra, have a population control bill of some form.
The Union Government though maintains that diktats on population are counterproductive, with states like Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu bringing their population under control without resorting to such policies.
A right-wing conspiracy theory posits that Indian Muslims will aim to reproduce more than Hindus as part of the concerted attempt to make India into a Muslim-dominated country, and repeatedly call for a population control bill to inhibit this.
Also Read: No Two-Child Policy On The Cards: Centre To Lok Sabha