AIMIM supremo and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday said that the Muslim population growth rate in the country has had the sharpest decline among all, dismissing RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s claim that it has increased.
“As usual, RSS Mohan’s speech today was full of lies and half-truths. He called for a population policy and repeated the lie that Muslim and Christian population has increased. Muslim population growth rate has had the sharpest decline among all. There’s no ‘demographic imbalance,” Owaisi said.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday said that in some districts of Assam, West Bengal and Bihar, the population growth rate among Muslims was far greater than the national average.
“This is a clear indication of uncontrolled infiltration from Bangladesh,” claimed the supremo of Hindu paramilitary organisation..
Owaisi said one has to worry about the social evils of child marriages and sex-selective abortions. “84% of married kids are Hindus. Between 2001-2011, Muslim female-male ratio leaped from 936 to 951 women for every 1000 Muslim men. But, the Hindu ratio only rose from 931 to 939,” he wrote in a series of tweets.
On the call of Hindutva leader for a population policy, Owaisi pointed out that India has already achieved replacement level fertility rates without any coercive population policy.
“Similarly, fact-free Mohan is worried about India’s ageing population and the need to have younger population to help the ageing. He should tell his student Modi about it,” he added.
Owaisi went to ask: “No man has destroyed India’s demographic dividend like he (Narendra Modi) has. Majority of India is young; they lack education, govt support and jobs. What’s the future of a country whose PM cannot promise anything more than a few pakora stalls? Population control policy will mean fewer youth of working age. How will they support an ageing population?”
On the Hindu nationalist leader’s demand for National Register of Citizens (NRC), the vocal Muslim politician said this was nothing but a weapon to doubt citizens’ Indianness and harass them.
“A government that didn’t have a count of oxygen deaths, frontline workers’ deaths, migrant workers’ deaths or farmer suicides thinks it will verify citizenship of 1.37 billion Indians,” he said.
Owaisi also slammed Bhagwat for stating that that people in Kashmir were reaping the benefits of repealing Article 370.
There have been 29 targeted killings of civilians this year and there are Internet shutdowns and mass detentions, said Owaisi. He also pointed out that India’s highest unemployment rate of 21.6 percent is in Jammu and Kashmir.
Owaisi went on to say: “Bhagwat mentioned Muslim patriots like Ashfaqullah Khan and Muslims who had fought in the armies of Hindu Kings against so-called Muslim invaders. Ashfaqullah and Ram Prasad Bismil were great friends. Who destroyed such friendships in the name of Fatherland and Holy land.”
“The record of Muslim freedom fighters is such that even Mohan is compelled to praise them. The same cannot be said about RSS and its ideologues. They were always epitomes of anti-national activities and cowardice. Savarkar advocated use of rape against Muslim women during war,” Owaisi said.
In the concluding part of tweets, Owaisi wrote: “RSS cannot coexist in a society that wants to progress economically. Society must choose between RSS’s cowardice and Ashfaqullah Khan’s bravery; RSS’s betrayal of India and Gandhi’s patriotism; RSS’s ideology of whining/resentment and Maulana Azad’s intellect and education. Society must choose between RSS’s love for inequality and Ambedkar’s desire for liberty, equality, fraternity and justice.”
