Times of India 
 
NEW DELHI, May 10: Days after BJP leader Varun Gandhi was released from prison on bail for his "hate speech" against Muslims, he found himself embroiled in a fresh controversy over allegedly advocating his late father Sanjay Gandhi's sterilisation programme dating to the infamous Emergency.

In an interview to the Daily Telegraph, London, Gandhi was reported to have supported the controversial programme -- a vastly unpopular effort to control population — which had contributed to Indira Gandhi's historic election defeat in 1977.

The newspaper quoted Varun as saying that he "hoped to follow in his father's footsteps by one day offering the strong leadership which India had lacked for 20 years''. Gandhi also said that if elected he would move a bill providing for military conscription, a measure to promote national integretion.

Gandhi denied his remarks about backing forced sterilisation though he said he had favoured a "sensible family programme". The British newspaper said Gandhi had spoken of wanting to take up the issue of population control and that he believed the earlier policy was implemented in a roughshod manner. But the clarificatory remarks, issued to an agency, came on Saturday evening by when the controversy had raged all day and BJP had even said the views expressed were Gandhi's personal opinion.

Speaking to TOI, Gandhi said the policy could not be forced on people. In a democracy, coercion was simply not possible. "People also say my father talked of things 30 years ahead of his times. We need to educate people and involve women, even rural women who have a lot of wisdom, even if they are not educated. In a democracy you cannot force it like they did in China,'' he said.

He did say that compulsory military service for all Indians through a law passed by Parliament was his remedy to overcome caste and religious differences. "Instead of people thinking of themselves as Tamils or Brahmins, they should think of themselves as Indians,'' he said.

Though it does seem that the reference to Sanjay Gandhi might have been somewhat overblown in the current context, the young leader has been repeatedly referring to his father as an ideal administrator and a strong political personality, something that has caused more than a degree of discomfort in BJP. As several senior BJP leaders were jailed during the Emergency as a result of Congress policies, the laudatory references to Sanjay Gandhi are quite discomfiting.

Gandhi has been in the eye of a storm ever since his allegedly inflammatory speech while campaigning in his constituency of Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh. He is reported to have threatened to "cut off the hands'' of Muslims if they "raised a finger against Hindus''. In March, he was jailed for 20 days under the National Security Act for threatening communal harmony and has only recently been released on bail.