The Assam Civil Society (ACS), an organisation of prominent Muslim citizens from the state, on Monday lodged a complaint with the Latasil police here seeking registration of an FIR against Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his “inflammatory, communal and provocative statements” against the Miya community.
ACS president and senior Gauhati High Court advocate H.R.A. Choudhury told The Telegraph that a delegation of the society lodged the complaint around 2pm because of the “adverse impact” of the statements not only on the Miya community but also on society as a whole.
“A section of people in some places have already started targeting Miya community members, emboldened by the chief minister’s statements, which will eventually impact law and order situation in the state,” he said.
The ACS was formed in 2016 and registered in 2021.
In its complaint, lodged along with media reports, the ACS stated that the chief minister “made some provocative and hate and communal speeches” on January 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 before the media and the “same have been widely circulated” in both print and electronic media.
“On going through the said communal and provocative statements of Himanta Biswa Sarma… it is evident that the said statements were made intentionally to promote enmity and hatred against a particular community, more specifically referred to as ‘Miyas’, who are basically East Bengal-origin Muslims of Assam.
“The chief minister, in fact, asked the members of Hindu community to harass the said ‘Miya Muslims’, which is intended to promote enmity and hatred on grounds of religion between Hindu and Muslim,” the complaint claimed.
The ACS, citing media reports, further stated that some people “influenced by his (Sarma’s) statements have started harassing/threatening East Bengal-origin Muslims in some places… causing disharmony and feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-feelings between two groups, which is likely to disrupt public peace, tranquillity and communal harmony — attracting offences under Sections 192, 196, 197, 299, 302 and 353 of the BNS”.
Urging the police to register a case against Sarma, the ACS also called for “necessary actions against him as per law in view of the directions and observations made by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in various cases, in the interest of peace and harmony among different groups of the people within the State of Assam”.
Before the ACS, activist and writer Harsh Mander had also lodged a police complaint in Delhi against Sarma over his public statements made on January 27 allegedly promoting “hatred, harassment, and discrimination against Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam”.
Last week, leader of the Opposition in the Assam Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, requested the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to take suo motu cognisance of the alleged misuse of the ongoing Special Revision of electoral rolls and Form-7 in poll-bound Assam.
The trigger for Saikia’s letter to CJI Surya Kant was the “repeated media briefings and categorical statements made by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Himanta Biswa Sarma, that notices under the Special Revision are being deliberately served only upon a particular community, namely the ‘Miya’ (Bengali-origin Muslims with roots in present-day Bangladesh) population, to ‘keep them under pressure’, ‘make them suffer’, and to demonstrate ‘resistance’ in Assam”.
Sarma on Saturday responded to Mander’s complaint by asserting that at least 100 cases will be filed against the activist.
On Thursday, Sarma invoked the Supreme Court’s observations to justify his statements against the Miya community. “Those who are attacking me for my remarks on ‘Miyan’— a word used in Assam in the context of Bangladeshi Muslim illegal migration — should pause and read what the Supreme Court of India itself has said about Assam. This is not my language, not my imagination, and not political exaggeration,” he had said.