The Kerala BJP on Tuesday expressed anxiety over the rapid growth in the minorities’ population in the State. A resolution adopted by a State leadership meet in Kozhikode stated that the minorities had become majority in Kerala and the strength of the Hindu community was shrinking in the society.
The party resolution felt that Kerala could become a Muslim-majority State within 25 years. State BJP president V Muraleedharan sought an investigation into the large-scale migration of Muslims from Bangladesh into the State in the garb of migrant workers and the alleged efforts to get them enrolled in the voters’ list.
“The sections of the population which have so far been known as minorities are fast becoming the majority in Kerala. The main reasons for this are the growth in the birth rate among Muslims and the speed of generational change,” Muraleedharan said, adding that the policies being pursued by both the Congress-led ruling UDF and the left were equally responsible for this.
Muraleedharan said that Muslims now constituted 32 per cent of Kerala’s population. “The minorities were 44 per cent in the State in 2001 but in ten years they had grown to form 52 per cent of the population. Hindus, who were 56 per cent in 2001, have now been reduced to just 48 per cent,” the State BJP chief said.
The growth in minorities’ population in the State in the decade in consideration was far greater than the growth seen in a whole century, Muraleedharan said. The shrinkage of the Hindu community into a minority in the State would be detrimental to the Keralites’ identity and this could have serious consequences, he said.
“One of the things which causes great concern is the large-scale presence of Bangladeshi Muslims among the migrant workers arriving in Kerala,” said the BJP leader. He claimed that the police had noted that the UDF and the CPI(M)-led lDF had been trying to enroll such people in the voters list in certain areas of the State.
In such a situation, the BJP would launch a campaign to keep all Hindu organisations, including the Nair Service Society (NSS), united. The NSS, outfit of Hindu upper caste Nairs, and the BJP had been at loggerheads recently following an incident involving pro-BJP film star Suresh Gopi. The NSS has traditionally been a supporter of the Congress and the UDF it is leading.
Muraleedharan said that the BJP was not against the NSS and that it had only pointed out some of its mistakes. SNDP Yogam, the outfit of the influential Hindu lower caste Ezhavas who had traditionally been supportive of the left, has recently been showing signs of getting nearer to the Sangh Pariwar.