Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday cited Supreme Court’s observations to justify his remarks on the state’s Miya community, Bengali-speaking Muslims with roots in present-day Bangladesh.
Activist and writer Harsh Mander has filed a police complaint over the chief minister’s public statements made on January 27 in Digboi for allegedly promoting “hatred, harassment, and discrimination against Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam”.
Sarma issued a 245-word post on X to clarify his recent remarks on Miyas over the ongoing special revision of the electoral rolls in the poll-bound state, which state Congress leader Debabrata Saikia has contended in a petition to the CJI on Wednesday that these remarks constitute an “unprecedented admission of intent to interfere with the electorate on communal lines”.
Sarma said: “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 said in his post that “when the highest constitutional court of the country uses words like “demographic invasion” and warns of the possible loss of territory and national unity, acknowledging that reality is neither hatred nor communalism, nor is it an attack on any community. It is a recognition of a grave and long-standing problem that Assam has lived with for decades”.
“These are the (Supreme) Court’s own words: ‘The silent and invidious demographic invasion of Assam may result in the loss of the geostrategically vital districts of lower Assam… The influx of illegal migrants is turning these districts into a Muslim majority region… It will then only be a matter of time when a demand for their merger with Bangladesh may be made… Loss of lower Assam will sever the entire land mass of the North East from the rest of India and the rich natural resources of that region will be lost to the Nation.’”
He said: “Our effort is not against any religion or any Indian citizen. Our effort is to protect Assam’s identity, security, and future, exactly as the Supreme Court cautioned the nation to do. Ignoring that warning would be the real injustice — to Assam and to India.”
Earlier in Golaghat on Thursday, Sarma had said that these words were cited by the Supreme court in its observations on the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983, which was scrapped by the apex court on July 12, 2005, because it was unconstitutional and a hurdle against deportation of illegal immigrants.
Sarma’s remarks targeting the Miya community in Digboi on January 27 had gathered widespread traction.
Reacting to a query on the SR, he had said: “What is ‘vote chori’? We are trying to steal some Miya votes. Miyas should legally not be allowed to vote in Assam; they should vote in Bangladesh. We are making arrangements to stop them from voting in Assam but this is preliminary.”
Sarma then added: “When the SIR comes to Assam, we will have to delete four to five lakh Miya votes. No matter how much Congress abuses me, my job is to make the Miyas suffer. If they don’t suffer, they will come to Duliajan. They have (already) come to Tinsukia.”