Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday that the increase in the country’s Muslim population was not due to the fertility rate but because of large-scale infiltration. Shah made these remarks while delivering the 'Narendra Mohan Memorial Lecture' on 'Infiltration, Demographic Change, and Democracy' organised by Dainik Jagran. Referring to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, the Home Minister said that “the decline in the Hindu population in these countries was not due to conversion; many of them have sought refuge in India”. “On the other hand, the increase in the Muslim population in India is not due to the fertility rate but rather due to the large-scale infiltration of Muslim individuals into the country,” an official release issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) quoted Shah as saying. Shah said the Muslim population in the country has increased at a rate of 24.6 per cent, while the Hindu population has decreased by 4.5 per cent. “.this decline is not due to the fertility rate but rather due to infiltration. When India was partitioned, Pakistan was formed on both sides based on religion, which later split into Bangladesh and Pakistan. infiltration from both sides has led to such a significant change in the population,” he said. The Home Minister said the disparity in population growth across all religions observed in the census from 1951 to 2011 is primarily due to infiltration. He said his party has “adopted the three principles of Detect, Delete, and Deport” since 1951. “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 said. Shah also defended the Citizenship Amendment Act and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. “CAA is not about taking away anyone's citizenship but is a program designed to grant citizenship. there is no provision in the Act to deprive Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, or any other community of their citizenship. its sole purpose is to provide citizenship to refugees,” he said. The Home Minister said the SIR was “not a political issue but a national one”, and added that “some political parties see not a threat to the country in infiltrators but rather a vote bank”. Asking how infiltration can be stopped if a person enters the country illegally and the district administration fails to identify them, he pointed out that Gujarat and Rajasthan also have borders, but no infiltration occurs there. “Conducting SIR is the responsibility of the Election Commission. The Constitution entrusts the EC with the responsibility of conducting free and fair elections, which is only possible when the voter list is prepared in accordance with the definition of a voter. When infiltrators are included in our voter list, they become participants in the country’s political decision-making process. When the basis of voting is not the nation’s interest, democracy can never succeed,” Shah said.
