In yet another brazen call for ousting Bangali-speaking Muslims from their livelihood options, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has threatened to drive out the community members involved in odd works in Guwahati. Sarma’s comment came after AIUDF supremo Badaruddin Ajmal had earlier said that without Miya, there can be no Axomiya, in an apparent reference to the syllable of the word which refers to Assamese.
The CM, while acknowledging Ajmal’s claim that the people of Bengali speaking Muslim community work harder than the members of the Assamese-speaking communities, said, “…if Assamese boys from Upper Assam come out…within a year, I will clean Guwahati.” While Sarma asserted that the Parliamentarian from Dhubri constituency had taunted the Assamese community, he said Ajmal’s comment should hurt the Assamese community.
“The statement that Badaruddin Ajmal has made, we should consider it as an insult to our community and Assamese people should take revenge against that through work culture. Instead of questioning that Ajmal has taunted you, it should hurt your feelings. It should hit my skin. And Assamese boys should take these works up amicably, not by fighting but by competition.”
Sarma also claimed that most of the drivers in Guwahati are Miya people. “A few days ago, there was a meeting of Amit Shah on the day of Eid. I had to cancel the meeting because everyone complained that they would not get buses. Why would you not get buses? Because all the drivers of buses are Miyas. All the buses that are there in Guwahati, 80 percent of drivers are Miya people. 70 percent Ola-Uber drivers are Muslims (Miyas). They earn very much enough.”
Targeting the impoverished vegetable sellers from the Bangali-speaking Muslim community, he also said that the prices of vegetables, which have spiralled due to the crop losses after floods since last month, were high because Muslim vendors were charging the Assamese community exorbitantly. “They do the business here; they charge higher prices here. If it was an Assamese, then he would have not charged such higher prices from an Assamese”, he said.
Saying that he already had evicted vendors from the city’s flyovers, the Assam CM appeared assuring he would “evict all the footpaths of Guwahati if Assamese people come out”.
Sarma, who was a long-term Congress legislator from Assam, shifted to BJP in 2015 and became the saffron party’s kingpin in the Northeast and since then he has joined the ranks of other BJP leaders who often make anti-Muslim hate comments.
“Comment may instigate violence”
The Bangali-speaking Muslims are pejoratively called Miya in Assam and have been subjected to numerous hardships over the years. The latest comment by the CM masquerading as a call for upping work culture by the Assamese community is termed a violation of “IPC 153 A” by minority leaders.
Imtiyaz Hussain of All Assam Minority Student’s Union (AAMSU), the apex student body representing the Bangali-speaking Muslims of Assam, said “The chief minister’s remarks after Ajmal’s comment show the nexus between the two parties as polls are closing in. Sarma and Ajmal are trying to polarize the communities to gain in the elections. But the statement is in complete violation of section 153 a of the IPC”.
“If any communal disturbance happens, then CM Sarma must take responsibility for his instigating remark”, the general secretary of AAMSU added.
The IPC 153a deals with offences of the promotion of enmity between groups between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony.
The Supreme Court, on 28 April this year, directed all chiefs of police across the country to ensure that immediately as and when any speech or any action takes place which attracts offences such as Sections 153A, 153B and 295A and 505 of the IPC etc, suo moto action will be taken to register cases even if no complaint is forthcoming and proceed against the offenders in accordance with law.”
The apex court’s bench of Justice KM Joseph and Justice BV Nagarathna, hearing the case related to hate speech noted “Such action will be taken irrespective of religion that the maker of the speech or the person who commits such act may profess, so that the secular character of India, that is, Bharat as is envisaged by the Preamble, is preserved and protected”.
Terming the chief minister’s statement as a violation of every possible constitutional tenet, Guwahati-based human rights advocate Aman Wadud said, “This is a direct threat of an economic boycott of a particular group of people, and this is not coming from any radical vigilante group, but from the Constitutional head of the state. Frightening is an understatement.”
The AIUDF leader has hit out at Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over his Islamophobic comments on Miya Muslims and accused him of trying to separate Muslims from other sections in the northeastern state.
Also, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen(AIMIM) supremo Asaduddin Owaisi slammed Sarma over his hate speech and said “There is a group of people in this country who will blame the Miya Muslims if their buffalo does not give milk if their hen does not lay eggs. They will blame Miya Muslims for all their personal failures too”.
