Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has appealed to Muslims to undergo an “internal reform” for controlling their population growth and follow family planning “like other communities in India”.

The VHP central “margdarshak mandal” passed a resolution in this regard at a meeting at Kumbh Mela in Nasik Saturday. The resolution came after discussing a proposal moved on recently released Census data that showed growth rate of Muslim population as 24.6 per cent between 2001 and 2011. Muslims were the only community to register a growth in terms of their share in the total population.

Contacted, VHP central secretary Rajendra Singh Pankaj told The Indian Express the “internal reform” meant Muslims should understand their focus on increasing population would affect the society and “they should distance themselves from the practice of having several wives and producing more children, in the interest of the nation”.

The VHP leaders resolved, “A major section of the Muslim community has taken population growth as a mission and some hardliners too are misguiding innocent Muslims to increase their population by showing them dreams of Darul Islam.” The leaders stated the Hindu community would be affected by this “population imbalance”, but Muslims too would have to face backwardness because of their “population growth campaign”.

“So it is an appeal to the Muslim community to undergo an internal reform to avoid ill-effects of their campaign. When various Arab countries and decent sections of society across the world have adopted family planning, then why are Indian Muslims not adopting it?” the Hindu religious leaders resolved at the meet.

The VHP members also claimed infiltration from Bangladesh and Myanmar was a factor in rise in Muslim population. Participants expressed concern that population share of Hindus had for the first time decreased below 80 per cent, and claimed such a trend could be a threat to the secular and harmonious identity of the nation.

The VHP leaders claimed communal harmony had been disturbed in districts of Kashmir valley, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam where Muslims were in a majority, and “non-Muslims were finding it tough to maintain their existence there”.

“Central and state governments, both, seemed to have failed in controlling the situation at these places. And, probably, this is the reason that certain Muslim leaders are warning that Hindus will have to survive on their terms when Muslim population crosses 20 per cent share in the country,” the leaders remarked at the meet.

The ‘margdarshak mandal’ members also pitched for a common national population policy. The VHP also passed a resolution on “social harmony” for its religious heads to take out padyatras in areas with substantial Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and hold religious discourses to foster feelings of equality.

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