NEW DELHI: On the back of claims by a study of Pew Research Centre that India would surpass Indonesia to become the country with the largest Muslim population by 2050, VHP on Friday once again raked up the ‘Hindus-must-reproduce-more’ issue. It said if Hindus continued to restrict themselves to having one child per family, Muslims would eventually take over the country.

It also indicated that parents had no right to decide the number of children they must produce and vowed to continue “Ghar Wapasi” as “that was the purpose of the organisation’s birth”. It even referred to former Mumbai and Punjab police chief Julio Ribeiro’s expressions of insecurity as an Indian Christian in a newspaper article to showcase the “success of Ghar Wapasi”.

Reacting to the Pew Research Centre study, International General Secretary of VHP Champat Rai said, “If Hindus are going to remain happy with just one child, this is what is going to happen. You want your salaries to increase from Rs 25000 to Rs 50000, but don’t want to have more children as that would mean more spending.”

When reminded that having children is a personal matter, Rai said, “It’s not a decision restricted to a couple. Or else the country would not have been divided. Across the world, wherever there is a demographic imbalance, governments give incentive to citizens to reproduce more.”

Rai maintained that VHP would continue to pursue ‘ghar wapasi’ whether the Narendra Modi government likes it or not. “Our existence itself is incumbent upon ghar wapasi. That’s why VHP was born. It is our duty to remind citizens of this country as to who were their ancestors,” Rai said.

Asked if he could quantify how successful VHP’s campaign has been during the past one year, Rai said, “Our success can be measured in Farooq Abdullah’s statement in which he admitted that he is a Saraswat Brahmin. It is implicit in Julio Ribeiro’s recent article in which he said if his blood was tested his DNA would turn out to be the same as that of Hindus. That’s what we have been saying all these years.”

He also attacked the West Bengal government for prohibiting Praveen Togadia from holding public meetings in the state. “The Bengal Hindu society is rising and the state government is getting increasingly desperate to appease its vote bank. The prohibition on Togadia(ji) is at best laughable,” said Rai.

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