Citizenship test to check rise in Muslim numbers, says India minister!

• Assam has the second highest percentage of Muslims among all states in Hindu-majority India.

An Indian minister on Wednesday defended a controversial citizens' list to detect illegal immigrants from mainly Muslim Bangladesh, saying the growth in the Hindu population of a border state had been overtaken by that of Muslims.

The draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) released on Monday excluded four million people from the northeastern state of Assam, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party came to power for the first time in 2016 promising action against illegal immigrants.Assam has the second highest percentage of Muslims among all states in Hindu-majority India. The draft is the result of a years-long agitation by residents of Assam demanding expulsion of the immigrants from Bangladesh just over the border.

"In the 50 years between 1961 and 2011, the majority community in Assam has grown 2.4 times; the minority has grown 3.9 times," Arun Jaitley, one of Modi's senior-most cabinet colleagues, said in a blog post. "This has caused a major demographic impact."

Jaitley, who is on medical leave from his role as finance minister, also quoted a Supreme Court order that said that influx of illegal migrants was turning some Assam districts into a Muslim-majority region which could lead to demands for their merger with Bangladesh. "Nobody could have put it better," Jaitley said.

He added that Assam's neighbouring state of West Bengal, whose chief minister has taken the lead in opposing the citizenship exercise, was "not far behind" in the changing demographics fuelled by immigration.

Assam has been racked by waves of violence over the years as residents, including tribal groups, have clashed with both Hindu and Muslim settlers, whom they accuse of plundering resources and taking away jobs.