Alitoday

NEW DELHI : The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has criticised All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi over his concerns about the Centre’s High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC). VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said the committee’s exercise covers all religious communities and is intended to examine changes in population patterns and issues related to illegal immigration. The committee, constituted under the Union Home Ministry, has sought information from states and Union territories on “visible changes” in religious demography across districts, industrial clusters and border districts over the past 15 years. What has the committee sought from states? According to the report, the HLCDC has asked states and Union territories to provide religion-wise information concerning vehicle registrations and any “sudden increase in commercial vehicle licences” in border districts. The committee has also sought information on property-transfer patterns in tribal areas, including alleged illegal transfers and encroachments involving tribal land. States have further been asked to provide details of government, aided, private and religious educational institutions established in tribal areas during the past 15 years. Bansal said the exercise was intended to examine demographic changes across religious communities rather than focus on any single group. Asaduddin Owaisi raises concerns Asaduddin Owaisi criticised the exercise in a post on X, alleging that the information collected could potentially be used to target Muslims. "When we demanded of the Modi government that it gather data on the educational, social, and economic conditions of Muslims, the government would instantly turn its face away. Amit Shah's "Demography Commission" is now asking states for data on how many vehicles people of which religion have bought, how much land they own, and so on." “The agenda of this commission is not to formulate better policies based on the foundation of data, but rather to twist and distort the data in such a way that Muslims can be targeted and even their remaining scraps of rights can be snatched away from them,” Owaisi said. https://twitter.com/asadowaisi/status/2104870064654889166?s20 He also questioned the purpose of the exercise and raised concerns about its possible implications for Muslims. VHP responds Responding to Asaduddin Owaisi, Bansal rejected the suggestion that the committee’s work was directed at Muslims and said the exercise covered every religious community. “The study is for every religion in the country, but a foreign barrister sees only one religion in it,” Bansal said. He also questioned the basis for Asaduddin Owaisi’s concerns, arguing that the committee had not yet collected the data. “If the government or the committee has said nothing and no data has even been collected yet, then from where did this MP smell that the data will be distorted and the rights of Muslims taken away?” he asked. Bansal further accused Asaduddin Owaisi and other leaders of previously spreading what he described as misinformation among Muslims on issues including the triple talaq law, the Supreme Court’s Ram temple verdict and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. “These are the same people who spread lies in the Muslim society about the ban on triple talaq and incited people against the court verdict on the Ram temple, spread the lie that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act would take away the citizenship of Muslims and are now obstructing government work and provoking extremists,” Bansal said. He concluded by saying, “They should snap out of this anti-national mindset of theirs.” The exchange comes amid wider debate over the purpose, scope and potential implications of the Centre’s demographic data-gathering exercise. Asaduddin Owaisi’s concerns represent his stated position, while the VHP has maintained that the committee’s exercise applies to all religious communities.