Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that the rise in India’s Muslim population is primarily due to “infiltration” from Pakistan and Bangladesh, not higher fertility rates.
Shah claimed that India’s Muslim population rose from 9.8% in 1951 and 14.2% in 2011, addressing at the Narend Mohan Memorial Lecture, organised by Dainik Jagran, on “Infiltration, Demographic Change, and Democracy.”
“The Muslim population has increased by 24.6 per cent whereas the Hindu population has decreased by 4.5 per cent,” he said
“This hasn’t happened because of the fertility rate but because of infiltration from Pakistan and Bangladesh,” Shah added.
“Hindus were 84 per cent of India’s population in 1951 and Muslims made up 9.8 per cent. In 2011, Hindus were 79 per cent while Muslims were 14.2 per cent,” Shah said.
Shah further clarified that “infiltrators” refers to individuals who have not suffered religious persecution but seek to enter India illegally for economic or other non-humanitarian reasons.
“If anyone in the world who wants to come here is allowed to do so, our country will become a dharamshala,” Shah said.
“The government will identify infiltrators, make every effort to ensure their names are removed from the voter list, and subsequently work to deport them to their countries. The right to vote should only be granted to citizens of this country,” he added.
