New Delhi, May 27 (IANS) National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders on Wednesday welcomed the Centre’s decision to form a ‘High-Level Committee on Demographic Change’ to tackle challenges like infiltration that pose unnatural demographic change in the country. However, Congress cautioned the government against pushing it without adequate facts and figures.

Bihar BJP President Sanjay Saraogi called the unnatural demographic change as a matter of “national concern”.

“In areas where opposition governments have ruled, such as in West Bengal under the Trinamool Congress, the demographics of several districts have changed, with Bangladeshi infiltrators being settled during their rule,” he told IANS.

Emphasising that illegal infiltration is an issue for the country, he said: “It is our (BJP’s) policy to identify the infiltrators and drive them out.”

Saraogi mentioned that the BJP government in West Bengal has begun its work against illegal infiltration.

“A few days back, we received data that the population demography in Bihar’s Kishanganj is increasing as compared to other districts. These are infiltrators, including Rohingyas,” he said.

Echoing similar views, JD-U National Spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan Prasad said that people who do not have citizenship of this country or do not possess valid documents regarding citizenship are a “matter of concern from the perspective of national security”.

He underlined that due to illegal infiltration, the country’s resources are not fairly distributed.

“In a country of 140 crore people, it must be ensured that only Indian citizens reside here; others will have to leave India,” Prasad told IANS.

BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi flagged the issue of an unstable population in the country. “Efforts should be made to find a solution in order to bring a balance in the country’s population,” he mentioned.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, while welcoming the Centre’s announcement, cautioned the government against pushing it without adequate facts and figures in hand, regarding “unnatural population shifts”.

Congress leader MP Husain Dalwai urged the BJP-led Central government to stop the infiltrators from entering the country.

“The BJP is in power right now in the country, so they should stop the infiltrators. What’s the point of only passing statements? Also, there’s a narrative that Muslims have more children. It is not like that. In places where there is proper education, medical facilities, etc., etc., Muslims don’t have many children,” he told IANS.

Dalwai asserted that with awareness and good medical facilities, people, irrespective of religion, make proper family planning.

Congress MP Rakesh Rathore said, “Such efforts are being made by the BJP-led Centre to divert people’s attention from real issues”.

–IANS

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