New Delhi: India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sakshi Maharaj has appealed to all Hindu women to produce at least four children each to protect the religion.

Without naming the minority community, he said: "The concept of four wives and forty children just won't work in India but it is high time every Hindu woman produced at least four children to protect the Hindu religion".

Sakshi emphasized that it is necessary for Hindus to increase their progeny to protect the religion.

Condemning the statement, the Opposition Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: "Is India's population policy being changed? Why is it that the prime minister, home minister, finance minister, and BJP head Amit Shah silent on the matter?"

Maharaj has also advocated death sentence for those indulging in conversion and cow slaughter and said the government will pass a law in this regard.

Asked about Ram temple, the issue which is pending in the Supreme Court, the MP said building of the temple is "inevitable".

"No power in this world can stop construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. The temple will be built come what may," he said.