'Fight is against Bangladeshi Muslims, not Indian Muslims’: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati, March 24, 2019:

Assam’s Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has often been accused of making “communal” comments in Assam, stated that the “fight” is against illegal Bangladeshi Muslim migrants and not the indigenous Muslim population in the country. The Finance Minister made this revelation during an interview with the Indian Express.

Shedding light on his controversial statement that 17 Assam Assembly seats would go to Bangladeshi Muslims if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is not enacted, he said: “People of Assam are in serious danger of losing their identity. I am going to tell this to the people of India, irrespective of elections. It’s a hard fact which has also been accepted by the Supreme Court. On the NRC (National Register of Citizens), their (the Supreme Court’s) words have been harsher than what I’m saying. They called it ‘external aggression’. The number of Muslim migrants who have entered Assam post 1971…it has created a situation almost like an external aggression. This is the language of the Supreme Court.”

Biswa Sarma also rejected claims that the entire Muslim community feels threatened by his comments and stated that the “fight” against Bangladeshis is on an “ethnic level”. “We should not have any grievances against Muslims who are part of India, who have equal rights as me or any other Indian citizen. I have a secular mindset. Though I understand secularism in my own way, I have full respect for Muslims in general. Our fight with Bangladeshi Muslims is on ethnic lines not on religious lines”, he said.

“Assamese Muslims, Muslims from UP or Bihar are different”, he further added. Meanwhile, Himanta Biswa Sarma has stated that the Bill will be reintroduced after ‘consultation and consensus’ and some ‘modifications’ are made to it.