Patil

New Delhi, Sept. 10: The census commissioner today turned up at the home minister?s office with an ?explanation? for the unadjusted growth rates in the latest census.

Home minister Shivraj Patil had summoned Jayant Kumar Banthia to his North Block office as he was reportedly unhappy at the ?unnecessary controversy? sparked by the Census Commission?s use of a methodology that threw up the contentious growth rates.

Banthia had spent the last few days defending the methodology that projected a steep increase in the rate of growth of Muslims.

?I have answered every query and there was no controversy to begin with,? he told reporters after explaining to the minister the methodology of the demographic exercise and clarifying the release of the controversial figures.

?We have reiterated all the details that we have given out from day one,? Banthia added.

Union home secretary Dhirendra Singh was not present at the meeting. He was reported to have expressed his displeasure at the way the commission came out with unadjusted data giving a wrong picture of the growth rates.

In a fresh set of census reports put up for sale today, the commission has incorporated a new analysis of the growth rates.

The analysis comes with a warning, literally in bold letters: ?The data-users, therefore, should adopt caution and be careful before drawing any conclusions in respect of trends in the proportions and growths at all-India level.?

The refurbished analysis has two sets of tables: one that was released initially showing growth rates without accounting for Jammu and Kashmir?s absence from the census in 1991, and another after excluding Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, which was missing in the 1981 report.

The two tables are aimed at making the point that the commission did not make a mistake by opting for a particular methodology.

But the Vishwa Hindu Parishad ? which should have been pleased that the growth rate of Muslims was lower than believed earlier ? was furious that the census commission had amended the figures.

VHP leader Praveen Togadia claimed it was done at the behest of the Muslim League. ?The change in the figures... is bunkum and we do not accept it,? he said, declaring that his outfit would get a demographic expert to examine the census report in detail.

Togadia also said that a nationwide campaign would be launched after Diwali against what he dubbed a rise in Muslim population.