Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny is the talk of the town in the recent days.

I haven't been able to read much of the news everyday, thanks to my busy schedule. Yet, these pieces of news have not missed my eye - courtesy my phone and a few informed opinionated friends.

It all started on 6th Jan when a certain Sakshi Maharaj, a Member of the Indian Parliament, made some really explosive comments.

In Meerut, a city in northern India, to address a gathering on the occasion of Sant Samaagam Mahotsava, he remarked, "The concept of four wives and 40 children will not work in India and the time has come when a Hindu woman must produce at least four children in order to protect Hindu religion."

Whoa!!

For years, Indians professed about "Hum Do, Humare Do" (We two, our two - a reference to limit the number of kids in a family to two). Our neighbor - China - advocated a single child policy in the view of the burgeoning population. And the last decade has seen the emergence of DINK (In case you are confused, it means - Double Income No Kids).

And here was a guy who is encouraging a lady to have 4 kids.

The dumb comment was treated with disdain across the spectrum of the society. Thank God the common sense was still prevalent.

Giving him "august" company is the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandra Babu Naidu. Naidu is the leader of the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. A new state, Telangana, was recently carved out of Andhra Pradesh.

Naidu is credited of making Andhra Pradesh and its capital Hyderabad an IT hub. With top organisations like Microsoft based in Hyderabad, the erstwhile land of the Nawabs has seen immense development in the past 15 years.

We would expect such illustrious leaders to be more sensible. Shockingly, he encouraged the people of his new state to have more children !!

"I have only one child. Many people are not bearing children. Even educated people are avoiding children these days." He was worried that if the trend continued the population of the state will dwindle at one point of time. "It is not good to have no children at all," he said. 

"Have more children, keep Andhra Pradesh young, advises Chandrababu Naidu" screamed the headline of a national news paper.

Sakshi Maharaj has company. We already had parents and relatives advising young couples about children. Now, leaders have directly entered the living room advising them about their conjugal and familial pursuits.

A few days back, The Pope, was in Philippines. Visiting the largest Catholic nation in Asia, The Pope addressed a massive prayer meeting in Manila.

On his flight back home to The Vatican, The Pope recollected the case of a woman he met who was pregnant with her eighth child after seven Cesarean sections. "That is an irresponsibility!" he said. “That woman might say, ‘No, I trust in God.’ But look, God gives you means to be responsible,” The Pope added.

He said there are many "licit" ways of regulating births that are approved by the church. This was a probable reference to the advocated family planning method of monitoring a woman's cycle to avoid making love when she is ovulating.

Often seen as a little less conservative, and more modern, The Pope continued to adhere to the Church's ban on artificial contraception. However, he added that Catholics may have a moral responsibility to limit the number of their children and need not reproduce "like rabbits.''

I have discussed the topic about Contraception, HIV AIDS, Abortion and The Church in my earlier blog posts.

Such matters are slow moving ideas. It takes more than a generation to change such thoughts and opinions.

The view expressed by the Pope was a very decisive statement, who enjoys a great following from the across the world.

It's in direct contradiction to the two leaders mentioned earlier.

Perhaps, experience has shown the demerits about throwing caution to the wind.

P.S. Bugs Bunny doesn't need our company. We humans are considered to be more intelligent and informed. Let us stay so.

Read more about Bunnies and their extraordinary capability here.