"Report poses questions that need serious answers": Rajeev Chandrasekhar on EAC study which shows increase in Muslim population

New Delhi: After the Economic Advisory Council to the PM (EAC-PM) report said that the share of the Muslim population between 1950 and 2015 has increased, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday said that this is a very important report that poses questions that need serious answers.
"This is a very significant issue on which all Indians should seriously ask a few questions because if only the Muslim community has increased its population by such a significant number over the last several years. The questions to be asked need serious answers," Rajeev told ANI.
"How much of this growth has been because of illegal immigration and conversion? How much of this growth of the Muslim community alone, is crowding out the other minority communities like Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, and Christians from the benefits that minorities get from the Government of India and state governments?" he added.
Further, the Union Minister targeted Congress over the reservation and said that given this large and increasing population of Muslims, some political parties want to alter the Constitution and give religious-based reservations.
"Given this large increasing population of one minority religion, the Muslims, and on top of that, some political parties want to alter the Constitution and give religious-based reservations to the Muslim community. What will that deadly combination of growth in population and reservations have on other much more deprived communities like OBCs, SCs and STs?" Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.
The remarks came amidst the report of the Economic Advisory Council to the PM (EAC-PM) which said that in India, the share of the majority Hindu population decreased by 7.82 per cent between 1950 and 2015 (from 84.68 per cent to 78.06 per cent), while the share of the Muslim population, which in 1950 was 9.84 per cent, increased to 14.09 per cent in 2015--a 43.15 per cent increase in their share.
According to the EAC report, the share of the Christian population rose from 2.24 per cent to 2.36 per cent--an increase of 5.38 per cent between 1950 and 2015.
The share of the Sikh population increased from 1.24 per cent in 1950 to 1.85 per cent in 2015--a 6.58 per cent rise in their share. Even the share of the Buddhist population witnessed a noticeable increase from 0.05 per cent in 1950 to 0.81 per cent.
On the other hand, the share of Jains in the population of India decreased from 0.45 per cent in 1950 to 0.36 per cent in 2015. The share of the Parsi population in India witnessed a stark 85 per cent decline, reducing from 0.03 per cent share in 1950 to 0.004 per cent in 2015.