india

Updated: Oct 31, 2015 21:53 IST

The RSS on Saturday sought a review of the population policy to counter “severe demographic changes” in India, flagging what it considers a high rate of growth among Muslims in the country.

The Hindutva outfit – considered the ideological mentor of the ruling BJP at the Centre – passed a resolution on the contentious issue at its three-day national executive in Jharkhand’s capital.

The RSS and its affiliated organisations have been citing the last census figures to claim that the Hindus are facing the threat of being swamped by Muslims, though the minority community accounts for only 14.2% of the country’s population while their population is growing at a slower rate.

The Hindu population was pegged at 79.8% of the population by the religion data of Census 2011.

“The share of population of religions of Bharatiya origin has slipped from 88% to 83.5% between 1951-2011 censuses while Muslim population has increased from 9.8% to 14.23% in the intervening period,” said the resolution, a copy of which was released to the media.

The RSS considers the Hindus as Bharatiyas (Indians) to make a distinction with Muslims and Christians whom the organisation claims arrived with “invaders” like the Mughals and British.

Expressing concern over the “demographic imbalances”, the RSS urged the Centre to reformulate the national population policy keeping in view the availability of resources in the country and future needs, the same idea floated by the outfit’s top leader Mohan Bhagwat in his Vijaya Dashami speech in Nagpur on October 22.

It also pointed out alleged abnormal rise in population of Muslims and Christians in some Northeast states like Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

“The Muslim population growth rate has been higher than the national average in border states of Assam, West Bengal and Bihar indicating unabated infiltration from Bangladesh which is corroborated by the Upamanyu Hazarika commission report and judicial pronouncements from time to time,” the resolution read, adding that the infiltrators were usurping the rights of the natives and resulting in socio-cultural and economic tensions.

The organisation said that the “unnatural growth of Christian population in many districts of the country indicates targeted religious conversion activity by some vested interests” and threatening the unity, integrity and cultural identity of the country.

RSS leader Krishna Gopal said though India was one of the early countries in the world to announce as early as 1952 that it will have population planning measures, it was only in 2000 that a comprehensive population policy was formulated and a population commission was formed.

In January this year, BJP leader Sakshi Maharaj had asked all Hindu women to bear four children to protect the religion, which was slammed by women rights activists and minority organisations.