Hindu population in India dipping: Kiren Rijiju

New Delhi: Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said on Monday that Hindu population in the country was reducing. In a post on micro blogging site Twitter, Mr Rijiju said, “Hindu population is reducing in India because Hindus never convert people. Minorities in India are flourishing unlike some countries around (sic).”’

The minister’s comments come close on the heels of the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee accusing the BJP-led Government at the Centre of trying to convert Arunachal Pradesh into a Hindu State.

“Why is Congress making such irresponsible statements? People of Arunachal Pradesh are unitedly living peacefully with each other (sic). Congress should not make such provocative statements. India is a secular country. All religious groups enjoy freedom & living peacefully (sic),” Mr Rijiju wrote in a series of controversial tweets while responding to the charges levelled by the Arunachal Congress.

Incidentally, Mr Rijiju is also from Arunachal Pradesh and happens to be a practising Buddhist. While reacting to Union minister’s comments, senior Congress leader and spokesman Manish Tewari said, “the statement which has been made by the minister of state for home affairs or the tweet that he put out, was not limited to Arunachal Pradesh.  If you read that tweet, the intent is implicit in it but the fact remains that when a minister of the Union makes such an irresponsible statement, he must be held to account.”

“It is not surprising if the Prime Minister can use national security as a prop. There is nothing which stops his ministers from going a step further and trying to attempt a religious polarisation. It smacks of desperation and clearly shows that for all the tall talk about development, ultimately the BJP comes back to its basic DNA and that basic DNA is to try and garner electoral benefit out of religious polarisation. Suddenly, one fine day you wake up in the morning and shoot from the hip, this is the conduct which is unbecoming of a minister. So, the only thing which seems to be decreasing, is the intellectual quotient of the NDA-BJP ministers,” the Congress leader added.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Mr Rijiju should remember that he is a “minister of India for all Indians not for Hindus. Remember your oath as minister. Wht have the minorities India got to do with minorities of other countries. It’s Constitution which guarantees rights,” Mr Owaisi also tweeted.