[dropcap]H[/dropcap]indu fundamentalists have been beating round the bush for so long while working out their agenda of outdoing the other in population politics but today they are becoming more direct and open in expressing their feelings.
The latest of such expression has been heard from prominent BJP leader Subramanian Swamy who said that the population of Hindus must remain above 80% of the country’s total population at all times. According to him, this is a requisite for maintaining “democracy” and “secularism” in the country.RSS chief Mohan Bhagat and VHP leader Pravin Togadia have been vocal in this regard in the past few months.
To fuel the situation The Times of India had revealed last month that Muslim population “has scaled by 24% between 2001 and 2011”. After this report there was a sense of insecurity in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The day the report was published the VHP said it would ask the Hindus to reproduce more. The VHP felt panicky after learning from the newspaper report that Muslim population in India has grown by 24% between 2001 and 2011 against national average of 18% with the community’s representation rising to 14.2% from 13.4% of total population. The VHP said, “Our stand has been vindicated and it would make fresh appeal to Hindus to reproduce more. It would also begin an agitation in the country to press government to enforce uniform civil code.” “What we have been saying since 1966 has been vindicated by this census. We will put pressure on the government to enforce uniform civil code. We will push for making family planning mandatory for all. Muslims are trying to overtake Hindu population through various ways such as infiltration and love jihad apart from reproduction. So Hindu’s reproducing more is a good option to challenge this. This call is already being made,” was what VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain had to say.
“Muslim scholars have, however, countered this fear-mongering by saying that the high growth rate of Muslims is owing to their poor socio-economic status which stands with those of Dalits and the resultant lack of education,” said the newspaper report.
