Although the census is no alternative to self-determination, the local government employees must discharge their duties honestly to defeat the RSS– BJP [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh–Bharatiya Janata Party] designs to change the demography of Jammu and Kashmir.

Who in the UT [union territory] doesn't know that the population of Jammu province is more than Kashmir and that the figures of all the censuses held in and after 1961 were fudged to ensure Kashmiri domination over Jammu province?

[T]he rulers of Kashmir are anxious to pass off the District [Ladakh] as a Muslim majority one…. [We fear] the Buddhists would be officially relegated to the position of a minority in the Census of 1961.

Yesterday [Ghulam Nabi Azad] was proudly saying that earlier there were more Buddhists in Ladakh and now Muslims are more. I have to say with regret that you tried to finish off Buddhists in Jammu and Kashmir by misusing Article 370.

The Buddhists of Leh feel that they are dominated by Muslims in the J&K [Jammu and Kashmir] state. But Kargilis feel the same discrimination. The state government thinks we are Muslims, but Shias. The centre thinks we are Ladakhis, but Muslims.

The Kashmiri Pandits with their population of 75,000 are represented by a Minister and a Deputy Minister in the Government of the State and in the Indian Parliament too, they are duly represented. But to the Buddhists the Kashmir Ministry like the Indian Parliament is forbidden ground….

If 80,000 Ladakhi Buddhists can be given a hill council, why 7 lakh Kashmiri Hindus cannot be given a homeland?

Numbers games begin in the teacher's mind. Kashmiri teachers are not serious about enumerating our [Gujjar and Bakarwal] community…. We do not trust [the] census.

Our present population is about one lakh but we claim three lakh. If Gujjars and Bakarwals can claim 25 lakh, why can't we?

[T]here is a longstanding and honourable tradition of cooking up figures in J&K [Jammu and Kashmir]….