The RSS has passed a resolution to 'reformulate" India's population policy and curb "demographic imbalance".
The Hindutva organisation on Saturday, 31 October claimed "higher growth" in religious groups other than Hindus - Muslims and Christians - ascribing it to what it called "infiltration and conversion" as the reason for the imbalance.
In a move that targets the adherents of the minority religions in the country, the Akhil Bhartiya Karyakari Mandal organised by RSS formulated the resolution in which they blamed massive disparities in the growth rates of different religious groups due to infiltration and conversion as the reason behind "religious imbalance of the population ratio, especially in border areas."
It claimed that the imbalance might jeopardize "the unity, integrity and identity of the country."
This is not the first time that the RSS has sought to demonise the minorities. Last week, during this annual speech on the occasion of Vijayadashami, RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat had also brought up the issue.
"Facts and figures of last two census reports and imbalances that have come to notice as a result are being widely discussed. Our present and future is getting impacted by the same... We need to rise above vote bank politics to formulate a holistic approach, equally applicable to all citizens, towards the population policy," he said, according to a report in the Indian Express..
The RSS resolution highlighted the idea that those who belonged to religions or sects of "Bharatiya origin" has seen its population reduced to 83.8% from 88%, "while the Muslim population, which was 9.8%, has increased to 14.23% during the period of 1951-2011."
"The rate of growth of Muslim population has been higher than the national average in the border districts of border states like Assam, West Bengal and Bihar, clearly indicating the unabated infiltration from Bangladesh," it added.
In the resolution, RSS also said that infiltrators are "becoming a heavy burden on the already scant resources, apart from creating socio-cultural, political and economic tensions."
Other than Muslims, the RSS also blamed Christians as well for the demographic imbalance. The resolution noted that people of 'Bharatiya origin' decreased from "99.21% in 1951 to 81.3% in 2001 and 67% in 2011."
"In just one decade, Christian population in the state (Arunachal Pradesh) has grown by almost 13 percentage points," it claimed. "These examples and pointers of unnatural growth of Christian population in many districts of the nation indicate an organised and targeted religious conversion by some vested interests," it said.
The resolution has targeted to achieve an even population by 2045 by "optimising fertility rate to the ideal figure of 2.1" and it was expected to be "uniformly applied to all sections of the society".
In a bid to ensure availability of enough resources across the country, "future needs and problem of demographic imbalance," the Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal appealed to the government for reformulating the national population policy, The Indian Express reported.
It also asked the government to completely restrain illegal infiltration from the other side of the border, and "prepare a national register of citizens and prevent these infiltrators from acquiring citizenship rights and purchasing lands."
