Guwahati, Feb 6 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday asked the state Congress to clarify whether it stood with the Assamese people or the ‘Miyas’, projecting the opposition party as sympathisers of suspected illegal Bangladeshis.
He also maintained that state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi surrounds himself with people who are against the interests of the Assamese people.
“The Congress should clarify whether it stands with the Assamese people or the ‘Miyas’. ‘Miyas’ mean those who came from Bangladesh,” Sarma told reporters on the sidelines of a government programme in Golaghat district.
‘Miya’ is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam and the non-Bengali speaking people generally identify them as Bangladeshi immigrants. In recent years, activists from the community have started adopting this term as a gesture of defiance.
He maintained that the ‘Miyas’ were initially settled in the western parts like Barpeta and Dhubri, close to Bangladesh border, but have now reached Duliajan and Margherita, towns in the eastern tip of the state.
“How will we survive? They have grabbed 10 lakh acres. Where will we go?” the chief minister added.
“People will question the Congress whether they are with the ‘Miyas’ or ‘Asomiyas’ (Assamese people),” Sarma asserted.
He also alleged that Gogoi’s ‘main advisors’ now are rights activist Harsh Mander and Aman Wadud, a lawyer and state party leader.
“The duo had edited a book written by Adbul Muhib Mazumder, where it is said that Assamese people came later and the Miyas came first to Assam,” Sarma claimed.
Mazumder, a former Congress minister, was behind the now-revoked Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) (IMDT) Act, a law to detect and deport illegal Bangladeshis but which faced criticism for its stringent procedural burden on the accusers.
“The Congress is filled with people who are against Assam and its people. The state Congress had presidents like Bhupen Bora and Ripun Bora in recent years, but we had never seen anti-Assamese people given such importance,” Sarma claimed.
“If in next 5-10 years we can’t build a resistance, nothing will be left,” he claimed. PTI SSG SSG MNB
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