Modi govt orders study of Gujarat population to ‘stop polarisation’

The survey is expected to identify the areas — their names and sizes — where people of different religions live,or have shifted to.

An important aspect of the commission’s mandate is to give “recommendations and policies as a guidance” for “stopping polarisation of population in the state”.

The commission has been asked to submit its report by January 2011. Assembly elections are due in December 2012.

A copy of the notification is in possession of The

Indian Express.

According to the state legal department,the reason for commissioning the survey is that “allegations have been made in courts as well as in media against the state government that polarisation of population on the basis of religion is taking place in the state of Gujarat” and “such allegations and unscientific conclusions create heart-burning and distance among citizens”.

The notification says that “the Government of Gujarat is of the opinion that the allegations so made are not based on scientific study”.

The government feels that “development of the population as a whole should take place in the context of law and order and social and economic development as well”,and “an inquiry should be held into this matter of definite public importance”.

Justice Sethna refused to comment on the matter. The retired judge had been in the news after he upheld a Vadodara fast track court order acquitting all accused in the Best Bakery case relating to the 2002 riots. The Supreme Court later ordered a fresh trial in the case by a special court in Mumbai.

Gujarat minister of state for law and parliamentary affairs Amit Shah said the study was required in view of the unfounded allegations made against the state BJP government.

“The inquiry will make it clear when,how and under what circumstances minority population shifted from one area to another,” Shah said.

State government spokesperson Jay Narayan Vyas said the matter was neither “sensitive nor provocative”,but it “will bring to surface the unfounded publicity that is being given without being backed by appropriate facts by certain NGOs and a section of the media”.

“This will also put in correct perspective a long-term change that has taken place in demography,nullifying the temporary bias a solitary incidence-based short term interpretation could bring in”,Vyas said.