Asaduddin Owaisi, president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), has accused a demography commission set up by India’s central government of targeting Muslims by seeking religion-based data on vehicle registrations and property sales.
He made the allegation in a post on X on Tuesday, citing media reports.
“When we asked the Modi government to collect data on the educational, social and economic condition of Muslims, it immediately turned away. Yet Amit Shah’s ‘demography commission’ is now asking states which religion’s people bought how many cars, who owns how much land, and so on,” Owaisi said.
The commission’s purpose is not to make better policy based on data, he claimed; rather, data could be presented and distorted in a way that targets Muslims and creates scope to take away their remaining rights.
According to reports, the High-Level Committee on Demographic Change (HLCDC) has sought religion-wise data for the past 15 years on birth registrations, vehicle registrations, school admissions and property transactions, as well as the number of religious places by district and any unusual rise in Aadhaar, voter ID and ration card registrations. It has also sought intelligence assessments and commission reports on religious conversion among Scheduled Tribe communities, and information on functioning detention centres, the reports say.
India’s home ministry set up the HLCDC on May 26 to review demographic changes caused by illegal immigration and other unusual factors and to recommend responses. It is headed by retired Supreme Court judge Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar.
Speaking to journalists on September 27, Owaisi alleged that the committee would go to areas where demographic change has occurred, review final voter rolls in areas where the special intensive revision (SIR) has been completed, and could identify illegal immigrants. He added that Amit Shah has spoken of implementing a National Register of Citizens (NRC), and said he feared an NRC could be based on voter rolls prepared through the SIR.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report