Read SC order before attacking me on Miya: Himanta
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said that those attacking him for his remarks on ‘Miyas ‘, referred disparagingly to illegal Bangladeshi Muslims, should read the Supreme Court’s order mentioning the “silent and invidious demographic invasion” of the State.
The CM recently said that ‘Miyas’ were being ‘harassed’ during the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls in the State, as they cannot be allowed to vote in Assam, and claimed that no Assamese — Hindus or Muslims — were facing any problem in the exercise. Opposition parties criticised him for this comment.
“Those who are attacking me for my remarks on ‘Miya’ — a word used in Assam in the context of Bangladeshi Muslim illegal migration — should pause and read what the Supreme Court of India itself has said about Assam,” Sarma said in a post on X.
He quoted from the apex court’s judgment while scrapping the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 (IMDT Act) in 2005:
“The silent and invidious demographic invasion of Assam may result in the loss of the geostrategically vital districts of lower Assam. The influx of illegal migrants is turning these districts into a Muslim-majority region.
“It will then only be a matter of time when a demand for their merger with Bangladesh may be made, loss of lower Assam will sever the entire land mass of the North East from the rest of India and the rich natural resources of that region will be lost to the Nation.”
The CM claimed that the highest constitutional court of the country used words like “demographic invasion” and warned of the possible loss of territory and national unity, acknowledging that reality is neither hatred nor communalism, nor is it an attack on any community.
“It is a recognition of a grave and long-standing problem that Assam has lived with for decades,” Sarma said, stressing that this is not “my language, not my imagination, and not political exaggeration”.
Sarma asserted that the government’s efforts are on to protect Assam’s identity, security and future, as the Supreme Court cautioned the nation to do. “Ignoring that warning would be the real injustice to Assam and to India,” the CM added in the X post.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme in Golaghat, he said those who have come from Bangladesh call themselves ‘Miya’, and “I have not given them this name”.
“If we say ‘Miya, Miya’, they can also call us ‘Assamese, Assamese’; and what is the problem with that?” he said.
Asked whether calling the Bengali-speaking Muslims ‘Miyas’ as ‘undemocratic’, Sarma said, “How can that be when the Supreme Court has said that an ‘invasion’ is taking place in Assam’?... The only difference is that they (SC) have mentioned the word ‘Muslim’, and I use ‘Miya’ so that the Assamese Muslims do not take offence,” he said.
It is the Supreme Court that has presented data to show the increase of Muslim population in several districts of the State, he added.
“People wrongly think that it is Himanta Biswa Sarma who says this, but whatever I mention is on the basis of the judgement. If I am saying anything wrong, then prove me wrong,” he added.
Former Congress chief ministers like Gopinath Bardaloi and Bishnu Ram Medhi were more outspoken on this issue, he claimed, “Had I said even 5 per cent of what they had said, then there would be chaos”.
The Congress should then say that their former chief ministers were wrong, Sarma added.
“Districts which had earlier a 10 per cent Muslim population now have 60 per cent, and I have not created these data”, he said.
If people go to Dhubri, Barpeta, Morigaon, Nagaon and other districts, they will realise what is happening and “there is no point in attacking me”, the CM added.
Sarma on Tuesday claimed that curtailing the names of ‘Miya’ voters from the electoral rolls was only a preliminary step, and when the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is conducted in the State later, four to five lakh votes of Muslims from Bangladesh will be cancelled.
He had said that there is no problem for Assamese people due to the SR, but the Miyas are facing hardship as they do not belong here, and notices are being sent to them to “keep them under pressure or else they will walk over our heads.
The Congress can “accuse me as much as they want, but my job is to trouble the Miyas so that they cannot vote in Assam”, he had said.
The Opposition parties in the State have alleged that the SR exercise is being used to harass genuine citizens, mostly religious minorities, by ‘BJP agents’, with Form 7 especially being used to complain against bona fide voters.
The Election Commission had directed the conduct of SR in Assam to prepare an error-free electoral roll.
The Integrated Draft Roll was published on December 27, while the filing of claims and objections continued till January 22. The final electoral roll will be published on February 10.
The EC had ordered the SR of electoral rolls in Assam as a Supreme Court-supervised exercise to verify citizenship, which is yet to be concluded. The State has separate provisions with regard to citizenship under the Citizenship Act.
