Insaaf Times Desk
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of making misleading statements about the Muslim population and infiltration. Owaisi alleged that Shah was “lying repeatedly” and manipulating population data for political gain.
In an interview with ANI, Owaisi said, “Amit Shah claimed that the Muslim population is growing rapidly. He is lying. From 1951 to 2011, the Muslim population increased by only 4.4 percent. I think his mathematics is weak.”
Owaisi also targeted RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He said, “On one hand, Bhagwat says one community’s population is growing rapidly; on the other, Yogi Adityanath says the native population is declining. Now Bhagwat advises having three children. If there are ten people and ten more are added, it looks like a 100 percent rise — maybe Amit Shah doesn’t understand that.”
Owaisi questioned why infiltration continues if the Home Ministry — headed by Amit Shah — is responsible for internal security and border management. “If infiltration is happening, you are the minister — stop it. The government’s own reports show that the Muslim fertility rate has declined the fastest. So why spread this false narrative of infiltration?”
According to government and independent studies, the growth rate of the Muslim population has been steadily declining. In 1951, Muslims made up about 9.8 percent of India’s total population, rising to 14.2 percent by 2011 — an increase of about 4.4 percentage points.
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data shows that the fertility rate among Muslim women dropped from 4.4 children per woman in 1992 to 2.3 in 2019–21. For Hindu women, the rate fell from 3.3 to 1.9 in the same period.
Experts say the declining fertility rates in both communities indicate a stabilizing demographic balance, with no evidence in official data to support claims of large-scale infiltration.
Recently, Amit Shah had claimed that “between 1951 and 2011, religious population imbalance increased due to infiltration,” stating that the Muslim population rose by 24.6% while the Hindu population fell by 4.5%.
His remarks sparked strong reactions from the opposition. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “Amit Shah has become a domestic factory of disinformation.” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera questioned, “If infiltration is happening, what has the Home Minister been doing for the past 11 years?”
Analysts say the population debate has increasingly become a tool for electoral polarization. Data shows that population growth rates are falling across all communities in India, but politicizing the issue risks deepening social divisions.
A researcher from the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) noted, “The decline in Muslim population growth in India is among the fastest in the world. Yet political parties continue to use it as a tool to spread fear.”
Owaisi argues that the modest rise in the Muslim population is due to natural growth and improved healthcare — not infiltration. Meanwhile, the government has produced no public data to support Amit Shah’s claims.
This controversy, experts say, is not just about numbers — it reflects a broader political discourse where population, religion, and citizenship are being weaponized as electoral issues.
