Assam BJP seeks arrest of Jamiat leader Madani for ‘attacking Assamese pride’

The Assam unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded the arrest of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader Mahmood Madani for comments it claims insulted Assamese self-respect.

The party said Madani linked ongoing eviction drives in Assam to incidents in Gaza and Palestine, which it described as an attack on the identity of the Assamese people. “Mahmood Madani has attempted to view Assam's problems only through the lens of the Muslim community,” the BJP stated in a release.

Assam BJP spokesperson Jayanta Kumar Goswami called on the state police to arrest Madani and ensure punishment for his remarks. He alleged that infiltrators and outsiders, with the support of previous Congress governments, had occupied government and forest lands, threatening Assam’s social, political, cultural, and economic fabric.

According to Goswami, the BJP government under Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has taken steps to protect indigenous rights by removing encroachers, deleting infiltrators’ names from indigenous-dominated areas, and securing the political rights of local communities.

He warned that if Congress, AIUDF, Raijor Dal, and Asom Jatiya Parishad form a government in the future, leaders such as Arshad Madani and Mahmood Madani could become political advisors in Assam, resulting in the “dominance of infiltrators.”

The BJP also accused Congress and its allies, along with certain left-leaning intellectuals, of encouraging what it termed the “Madani culture” in Assam, which it claimed undermines the interests of indigenous Assamese.