New Delhi: Seeking to make a distinction between “religions of Bharatiya origin” and others like Islam and Christianity, the RSS on Saturday passed a resolution asking the government to “reformulate” the population policy to check “demographic imbalance”. Claiming “higher growth” in the Muslim and Christian population, the RSS blamed this on “infiltration and conversion”.

The resolution, adopted at its Akhil Bhartiya Karyakari Mandal in Ranchi, noted that “vast differences in growth rates of different religious groups, infiltration and conversion” have caused “religious imbalance of the population ratio, especially in border areas”, which may threaten “the unity, integrity and identity of the country”. It asked the government to “reformulate” the national population policy and prepare a national register of citizens.

RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat had also raised the issue in his annual Vijayadashami speech last week. “Facts and figures of last two census reports and imbalances that have come to notice as a result are being widely discussed. Our present and future is getting impacted by the same… We need to rise above vote bank politics to formulate a holistic approach, equally applicable to all citizens, towards the population policy,” he had said.

“The share of population of religions of Bharatiya origin, which was 88 per cent, has come down to 83.8 per cent, while the Muslim population, which was 9.8 per cent, has increased to 14.23 per cent during the period 1951-2011,” said the RSS resolution, Indian Express reported.

“The rate of growth of Muslim population has been higher than the national average in the border districts of border states like Assam, West Bengal and Bihar, clearly indicating the unabated infiltration from Bangladesh,” it said.

Noting that “infiltrators are usurping the rights of the citizens of these states,” it said that they are “becoming a heavy burden on the already scant resources, apart from creating socio-cultural, political and economic tensions”.

Arguing that the “religious imbalance of population in the Northeastern states has assumed serious proportions”, the resolution said the “people of religions of Bharatiya origin” in Arunachal Pradesh came down from 99.21 per cent in 1951 to 81.3 per cent in 2001 and 67 per cent in 2011. In just one decade, Chirstian population in the state has grown by almost 13 percentage points, it said.

In Manipur, the share of people of “religions of Bharatiya origin” was over 80 per cent in 1951, but came down to 50 per cent in 2011, the resolution said.

“These examples and pointers of unnatural growth of Christian population in many districts of the nation indicate an organised and targeted religious conversion by some vested interests,” it said.

The resolution noted that while India announced as early as in 1952 its intention to introduce population planning measures, a comprehensive population policy was formulated only in 2000.

The policy aimed at achieving a stable population by 2045 by “optimising fertility rate to the ideal figure of 2.1” and it was expected to be “uniformly applied to all sections of the society”. However, the National Fertility and Health Survey of 2005-06 and 0-6 age group population percentage data of religion in Census 2011 indicate that the TFR and child ratio is uneven across the religions, it said.

Expressing “deep concern” over these “severe demographic imbalances”, the Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal urged the government to “reformulate the national population policy keeping in view the availability of resources in the country, future needs and problem of demographic imbalance and apply the same uniformly to all.”

It also urged the government to “totally curb illegal infiltration from across the border”, “prepare a national register of citizens and prevent these infiltrators from acquiring citizenship rights and purchasing lands”.

Denying any political inference, as the resolution comes in the middle of the Bihar elections, RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Manmohan Vaidya told The Sunday Express: “The dates for the Ranchi meeting and the proposed resolution were decided long ago. Bihar elections were announced much later. RSS does not do any politics.”

While Sah Sarkaryavah Krishna Gopal addressed the media on Saturday, Sarkaryawah Suresh Joshi will hold a press conference on the issue on Sunday.