New Delhi, Sep 30 (PTI) The VHP hit out at AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday over his criticism of the Centre’s High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes, accusing him of spreading an “anti-India agenda” and misleading people over the panel’s exercise.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said the committee’s exercise covers every religion and is aimed at studying illegal immigration and unusual demographic changes.
The High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC) under the Union home ministry has sought from the states and Union territories details regarding “visible changes” in religious demography in districts, industrial clusters and border districts over the last 15 years.
Details of religion-wise transport department data on vehicle registration, a “sudden increase in commercial vehicle licences” in border districts, property-transfer patterns in tribal areas, illegal transfers and encroachment of tribal land have also been sought.
Besides, the states have also been asked to furnish details of “educational institutions like government, aided, private, religious” established in tribal areas in the last 15 years.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Owaisi alleged that the exercise could be used to target Muslims.
“The agenda of this commission is not to formulate better policies based on the foundation of data, but rather to twist and distort the data in such a way that Muslims can be targeted and even their remaining scraps of rights can be snatched away from them,” the member of Parliament from Hyderabad said.
Reacting to his remarks, Bansal said, “The study is for every religion in the country, but a foreign barrister sees only one religion in it.”
“If the government or the committee has said nothing and no data has even been collected yet, then from where did this MP smell that the data will be distorted and the rights of Muslims taken away?” he asked.
Bansal alleged that people like Owaisi had earlier spread misinformation in the Muslim community over the ban on “triple talaq”, the court verdict on the Ram temple issue and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
“These are the same people who spread lies in the Muslim society about the ban on triple talaq and incited people against the court verdict on the Ram temple, spread the lie that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act would take away the citizenship of Muslims and are now obstructing government work and provoking extremists,” he said.
“They should snap out of this anti-national mindset of theirs,” he added. PTI ADI RC
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.