AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday hit out at the Narendra Modi government over reports that a Home Ministry-led panel on demographic changes has sought religion-wise data for the past 15 years on births, vehicle registrations, school enrolments and property transactions. Owaisi alleged that the exercise was aimed at distorting data to target Muslims and strip them of their rights.
“When we used to demand that the Modi government collect data on the educational, social and economic conditions of Muslims, the government would immediately turn away. Now Amit Shah’s ‘Demography Commission’ is seeking data from the states on how many vehicles people of each religion have bought, how much land each community owns, and so on,” Owaisi wrote on X.
He alleged that the commission’s objective was not to use data to formulate better policies but to manipulate its presentation in a way that could be used to target Muslims.
“The agenda of this commission is not to formulate better policies based on data, but to distort and present the data in such a way that Muslims can be targeted and even the few rights they have left can be taken away from them,” he added.
Earlier in the day, the Congress also criticised the Centre, alleging that the committee was working with a “patently diabolical agenda.”
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared a report published in The Hindu, which said the High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes had asked for religion-wise data on several indicators over the last 15 years. According to the report, the panel has also sought district-wise details of religious structures and information on unusual increases in Aadhaar, voter ID and ration card registrations.
The report further said the committee has asked for intelligence assessments and commission reports on religious conversions among Scheduled Tribe communities, along with details of operational detention centres, among other information.
In a post on X, Ramesh said the panel had a “patently diabolical agenda” and that it had plainly set out pre-conceived biases. “Its report has already been prepared no doubt,” he added.
The Hindu report also said state governments have been unable to respond to many of the questions raised by the high-level committee studying demographic changes, as government departments do not usually maintain much of the information sought by the panel on a religion-wise basis. The Congress attack on the government followed these reported queries and Ramesh’s charge that the committee’s exercise was shaped by pre-decided views.
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