'Another dangerous attempt': CPI attacks new panel on demographic changes, alleges bid to deepen polarisation

'Under the guise of ‘demographic concerns’, the government is once again attempting to snatch away the citizenship rights of millions of Indians,' the CPI said in a statement.

New Delhi: CPI on Wednesday condemned the setting up of a high-level committee to examine “unnatural demographic changes” in the country, claiming that it is “yet another dangerous attempt” by the BJP-led government to “deepen communal polarization and create fear” among minorities and marginalised sections of society.

“This is yet another step towards the RSS idea of creating ‘Hindu Rashtra’,” the CPI said in a statement, as the government on Tuesday set up a High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes under Justice (retired) Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar to undertake a "scientific study" of changes that arise out of illegal immigration, irregular population mobility and administrative laxity.

The party said this exercise is a “continuation of the politics” behind the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the ongoing discriminatory measures such as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

“Under the guise of ‘demographic concerns’, the government is once again attempting to snatch away the citizenship rights of millions of Indians. India is a secular, democratic republic where citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution, not determined by religion, language, caste, or political convenience,” it said.

“The repeated attempts to portray minorities, especially the Muslims and the marginalised, as a ‘demographic threat’ are deeply unconstitutional,” it said adding it was aimed at “diverting” attention from issues like youth unrest due to unemployment, paper leaks, mismanagement of CBSE exams, price rise, agrarian distress cause fertilizer price hike and dismantling of MGNREGA and growing inequality.

Warning that such committees and exercises can become “tools for surveillance, harassment, disenfranchisement, and denial of democratic rights” to vulnerable populations, especially the Muslims, migrants, Dalits, Adivasis, and the poor, the CPI called upon all secular and democratic forces, civil society organizations and people to unite against these “divisive and authoritarian” measures.

The CPI demanded the immediate withdrawal of all initiatives aimed at questioning citizenship and demographic profiling of communities, the statement said.