Infiltration from Pakistan, Bangladesh Caused Increase in Muslim Population: Amit Shah

NEW DELHI, Oct 10: The Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday claimed that the population of Muslims was increasing in the country because of “infiltration from Pakistan and Bangladesh.”

Speaking at an event in Delhi, Shah said the voting rights in the country “should only be available to citizens.” “The Muslim population has increased by 24.6 per cent, whereas the Hindu population has decreased by 4.5 per cent. I am telling you this because it hasn’t happened because of the fertility rate. It has happened because of infiltration,” Shah said.

Emphasising that the partition of India happened due to religion, Shah said Pakistan was created on both sides of India, and from those sides, infiltration happened, which resulted in such a change in population.

“I am going to tell you the difference between an infiltrator and a refugee. All the Hindu population that decreased in Pakistan and Bangladesh, many of them took refuge in India. And the Muslim population that increased in India wasn’t due to fertility, it was because many Muslims infiltrated into the country,” the home minister added.

Shah went on to say that the inclusion of “infiltrators in the voters’ list” pollutes the spirit of the Constitution and asserted that “voting rights should only be available to the citizens of the country.” He said infiltration and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls by the Election Commission should not be viewed from a political angle, emphasising that they were national issues.

He accused the Congress of going into a “denial mode” on the issue of the SIR, and reminded the party that such exercises also took place during the party’s government. “The opposition is opposing the  exercise because their vote banks are getting cut…It is EC’s constitutional responsibility to clean the voters’ list. You can go to court if you have any issues,” he said.

(Manas Dasgupta)