Owaisi dismisses RSS chief's claim of increase in Muslim population

Hyderabad, Oct 15 (IANS) AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday said Muslim population growth rate in the country has had the sharpest decline among all, dismissing RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's claim that it has increased.

"As usual, RSS Mohan's speech today was full of lies & half-truths. He called for a population policy & repeated the lie that Muslim & Christian population has increased. Muslim population growth rate has had the sharpest decline among all. There's no 'demographic imbalance'," tweeted Owaisi while reacting to RSS leader's Dussehra speech.

The Hyderabad MP said one has to worry about the social evils of child marriages and sex-selective abortions. "84% of married kids are Hindus. Between 2001-2011, Muslim female-male ratio leaped from 936 to 951 women for every 1000 Muslim men. But, the Hindu ratio only rose from 931 to 939," he wrote.

On the RSS chief's call for a population policy, Owaisi pointed out that India has already achieved replacement level fertility rates without any coercive population policy.

"Similarly, fact-free Mohan is worried about India's ageing population & the need to have younger population to help the ageing. He should tell his student Modi about it," said Owaisi.

"No man has destroyed India's demographic dividend like he has. Majority of India is young; they lack education, govt support & jobs. What's the future of a country whose PM cannot promise anything more than a few pakora stalls. Population control policy will mean fewer youth of working age. How will they support an ageing population?" he asked.

On the RSS chief calling Taliban terrorists, Owaisi termed this a direct attack on Modi, whose government hosted them in the Indian embassy. "If they're terrorists, will govt list them as such under UAPA? he asked.

He also slammed Bhagwat for stating that that people in Kashmir were reaping the benefits of repealing Article 370. He pointed out that there have been 29 targeted killings of civilians this year and there are Internet shutdowns and mass detentions. He said India's highest unemployment rate of 21.6 per cent is in Jammu and Kashmir.

On the RSS leader's demand for National Register of Citizens (NRC), Owaisi said this was nothing but a weapon to doubt citizens' Indianness and harass them. "A govt that didn't have a count of oxygen deaths, frontline workers' deaths, migrant workers' deaths or farmer suicides thinks it will verify citizenship of 1.37 billion Indians."

Stating that Modi failed in stopping Chinese soldiers from coming into Ladakh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, he asked why Bhagwat didn't utter a word about how our brave-hearts were treated by Chinese.

"Bhagwat mentioned Muslim patriots like Ashfaqullah Khan & Muslims who had fought in the armies of Hindu Kings against so-called Muslim invaders. Ashfaqullah & Ram Prasad Bismil were great friends. Who destroyed such friendships in the name of Fatherland and Holy land," he asked.

"The record of Muslim freedom fighters is such that even Mohan is compelled to praise them. The same cannot be said about RSS & its ideologues. They were always epitomes of anti-national activities & cowardice. Savarkar advocated use of rape against Muslim women during war," Owaisi said.

"RSS cannot coexist in a society that wants to progress economically. Society must choose between RSS's cowardice & Ashfaqullah Khan's bravery; RSS's betrayal of India & Gandhi's patriotism; RSS's ideology of whining/resentment & Maulana Azad's intellect & education. Society must choose between RSS's love for inequality & Ambedkar's desire for liberty, equality, fraternity & justice," he added.