New Delhi: A recent government panel report on population sparked a heated political debate on Thursday with the ruling BJP targeting the Congress for advocating minority reservation and the opposition accusing the saffron party of sowing communal discord during ongoing parliamentary elections. This controversy followed a working paper by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), which revealed a 7.82% decline in the Hindu population and a 43.15% increase in the Muslim population between 1950 and 2015, suggesting that there is a conducive environment in the country to foster diversity.

What the report says?
The paper titled 'Share of Religious Minorities: A Cross-Country Analysis (1950-2015)' further said the share of Jains in the population of India decreased from 0.45 per cent in 1950 to 0.36 per cent in 2015. It, however, did not give absolute numbers. The last census in the country was done in 2011, and the one due in 2021 has not been conducted. It was also not clear how the EAC-PM arrived at the 2015 numbers.

According to the paper, the share of the Christian population rose from 2.24 per cent to 2.36 per cent -- an increase of 5.38 per cent between 1950 and 2015. While the share of the Sikh population increased from 1.24 per cent in 1950 to 1.85 per cent in 2015 - a 6.58 per cent rise in their share, the share of the Parsi population in India witnessed a stark 85 per cent decline, reducing from 0.03 per cent share in 1950 to 0.004 per cent in 2015.

The paper noted that a decrease in the share of the majority population and a consequent increase in the share of minorities suggests that the net result of all policy actions, political decisions and societal processes is to provide a conducive environment for increasing diversity in society.

The report pointed out that in keeping with the global trends of declining majority, India too has witnessed a reduction in the share of the majority religious denomination by 7.82 per cent.

What BJP says?
Latching on to the report, the BJP expressed concern over the pace of increase in Muslim population in the country and wondered its impact on the reservation provided to SCs, STs and OBCs, claiming the Congress is "hell bent" on providing quota to the minority community if voted to power.

"If you see the 1951 census, Hindus were having 88 per cent population and Muslims 9.5 per cent. In the 2011 census, Hindus (population) reduced to 79.8 percent from 80 percent while Muslims' percentage went up by more than 14.5," BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said.

"But, the question arises that if by this pace the population is increasing and Congress is hell bent upon giving reservation to the Muslims on the basis of population, they will cut the share of the SCs, STs and the OBCs," he added. Trivedi said the Congress, if voted to power, will then keep on "changing" the share of reservation in future with increase in the Muslim population, "which is more likely because they (Muslims) are having possibility of multiple marriages".

Muslims share in the reservation will keep on increasing also because of "conversion and infiltration because they are having a secular cover from them (the Congress)", he claimed.

Union minister Giriraj Singh alleged that Hindu population in the country has gone down due to the Congress' politics of appeasement. "Hindu population is decreasing, Muslim population is increasing... It shows that in the days to come, they want to make India an Islamic state," he charged.
Read More: Congress responsible for decline in Hindu population, says BJP leader Amit Malviya

Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the EAC-PM's report raises many questions because one particular community is "increasing its population in a manner where demography of India is being altered, changed".

"How much of this growth in Muslim community (population) is being caused by illegal immigration and conversion?...What will be the consequence when you have the Muslim community increasing its population so rapidly, from 9 per cent to 14.5 per cent and there are political forces that want to give them reservation?" he asked.

What Opposition says?
Hitting back, the opposition leaders accused the BJP of trying to create communal divide over the report amid ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

CPI general secretary D Raja and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav slammed the Union government for not conducting the census, and called the working paper by the EAC-PM an attempt to get votes by creating strife. "Why has the PM's economic advisory council come out with this report at a time when the country is going for elections? The prime minister is already trying to polarise people in the name of Muslims, talking about handing over keys of Ram Mandir to Muslims... He is taking up all such issues. That means there is an attempt to polarise people by bringing out such data. People should be cautious of such reports," Raja alleged.

Slamming the BJP over the report, Yadav said, "The census that was to happen in 2020-21 has not been done till now, it's 2024. Their (BJP) aim is only to mislead the people of the country and to spread hatred. This is the agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP. They have fooled people of this country for ten years, and they want to do that again," the RJD leader charged.

Samajwadi Party MP ST Hassan also flayed the BJP over the report and said its a conspiracy to create hatred and polarise the voters. "It's election time. Any report can come... Modi ji is rattled," he told PTI.

Amid debate over EAC-PM's report, Population Foundation of India, a non-government organisation, said the population growth rates are not linked to religion and the total fertility rate (TFR) among all religious groups is declining, with the highest decrease observed among Muslims.
(With PTI inputs.)

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