Himanta hails BJP govt: Bengali-speaking Hindus in Assam "most comfortable" in last 10 years

Bengali-speaking Hindus in Assam have been "most comfortable" in Assam under the Bharatiya Janata Party's rule in the last 10 years, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, further hailing his government for working to resolve all issues faced by them.

Speaking on the sidelines of a programme in Silchar, he said "We have been resolving all issues faced by Hindu-Bengalis one by one. We ensured that they got their Aadhaar cards back. We have stopped slapping new citizenship cases against them." He also claimed that his government has been foiling attempts by Bangladeshis to enter the country illegally.

"I don't think any previous government has done as much as I am doing. But everything has to be done in a process, else the court will stop it," he added.

The chief minister claimed that Bengali-speaking Hindus have been "most comfortable in the state under the BJP's rule in the last 10 years".

Asserting that all issues between Assamese and Bengali-speaking people have died down, he said, "Hindus identify themselves by their religion, and not by language anymore".

Asked about the number of illegal Bangladeshis who have been pushed back at the international border, Sarma said, "It is not proper to give figures... When the time comes, we will give the figures." He said that Bangladeshis may enter through Tripura, Dawki in Meghalaya, Mankachar or Sribhumi in Assam, but "our security forces have been sending them back".

"We are taking steps to ensure that fresh infiltration cannot take place," he asserted.

Noting that many middlemen have also been arrested, he said, "It is unfortunate that many of them are Hindus. In Tripura, dalaals (middlemen) are all Hindus. They help one person cross the border for Rs 20,000." Asked about TMC MP Sushmita Dev's allegations that Bengali-speaking Hindus are facing problems here, Sarma said, "She wants to break the Hindu society, but we are one." "How can someone who has left her own place challenge me? No political leader leaves his or her origin. But she has left Assam and comes here as a guest now," Sarma added, referring to Dev, now a Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal.

Dev is a native of Silchar and represented the constituency in the Lok Sabha earlier.

Sarma also maintained that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi accorded utmost importance to the Bengali language.

Asked for his reaction to BJP leader Amit Malviya's comment on the Bengali language, the CM said, "I don't know what Malviya has said. It is important what Narendra Modi says." "Bengali language cannot be Bangladeshi language. How can the BJP speak against the Bengali language when it has accorded so much importance to the language," Sarma added.

His allusion was to the central government's decision to grant the status of Classical Language to Bengali.