More than 40 leading citizens, including academicians, doctors, authors and retired bureaucrats, have urged the Gauhati High Court to take suo motu cognisance of recent statements by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma against a particular community.
They maintained that "silence or inaction against constitutional transgressions" could lead to eroding the "moral authority of the Constitution itself".
In a letter to Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar on Thursday, the citizens drew the high court's attention to a series of public statements by Sarma, "which, on the face, amount to hate speech, executive intimidation and open vilification of a particular community", referring to the CM's remarks against 'Miyas' (Bengali-speaking Muslims).
They maintained that the Bengali-speaking Muslims have become a "part of the larger Assamese society" over the course of more than 100 years, and the statements of the CM "enter the prohibited constitutional zone of dehumanisation, collective stigmatisation and threats of state-sponsored harassment".
'Miya' is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam and the non-Bengali speaking people generally identify them as Bangladeshi immigrants. In recent years, activists from the community have started adopting this term as a gesture of defiance.
The citizens claimed that Sarma has indulged in "instigation for physical harm, economic discrimination and social humiliation", specifically referring to his statement urging the people to pay less than the actual fare for rickshaws pulled by Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Among the 43 signatories are academician and intellectual Hiren Gohain, ex-DGP Harekrishna Deka, former archbishop of Guwahati, Thomas Menamparampil, Rajya Sabha MP Ajit Bhuyan, environmental scientist Dulal Chandra Goswami, retired principal of Assam Medical College T R Borbora, advocate Santanu Borthakur, joint convenor of Joint Council of Trade Unions Garga Talukdar, and litterateur Arupa Patangia Kalita.
They also pointed to the CM's statements of ordering BJP workers to file objections targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims during the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls.
"A constitutionally mandated and quasi-judicial process such as the SR cannot be converted into a partisan or communal exercise at the behest of the chief minister," the letter said, noting that the Election Commission has not yet taken cognisance of the matter.
Stating that a chief minister swears an oath to discharge duties without affection or ill will, the letter said, "Publicly singling out a religious community for suffering, economic deprivation, heightened scrutiny and exclusion is fundamentally incompatible with this oath." "The brazen hate speech of the Assam chief minister is prejudicial to national integration and directly promotes enmity between different groups on grounds of religion," it further said.
They also maintained that Sarma's statements are contrary to secularism, which forms the basic structure of the Constitution.
Maintaining that it is a fit case for the court to exercise its suo moto jurisdiction, they urged the chief justice to "direct competent authorities to register a case against hate speech, executive interference and violations of fundamental rights".
They called upon the court to "protect the dignity, equality and security of the affected community" and "reaffirm that constitutional functionaries are bound by their oath and constitutional discipline".
The leading citizens also urged the court's intervention to "uphold public confidence in secular constitutional governance and the rule of law".
"Silence or inaction in the face of such open constitutional transgressions risks normalising them and eroding the moral authority of the Constitution itself," the letter added.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
