Himanta Biswa Sarma was sworn in as Assam Chief Minister in May 2021. Till 2015, Sarma was a part of the Congress and a young and ambitious leader considered close to then CM Tarun Gogoi. In 2011, Sarma manged the election campaign for the Congress, and helped it win an unprecedented 79 seats in the 126-member Assam assembly. However, with Tarun Gogoi projecting his son Gaurav as the face of Assam’s Congress leadership, he quit.
In 2015, Sarma joined the BJP and quickly rose to prominence becoming finance minister in the Sarbananda Sonowal government, then convener of the North East Development Alliance (NEDA). He has been credited as the man behind the BJP’s increased foothold in the Northeast.
As Assam Chief Minister, Sarma — though an ‘outsider — has steered many policies seemingly aligned with the Sangh agenda, including the passage of the Assam Cattle Preservation (Amendment) Act, asking for the reverification of the National Register of Citizens and carrying out demolition drives to evict “illegal encroachers”.
It is hard to understand the extreme obsession and paranoia that the BJP and Sangh have towards Muslims. It is hard to imagine how this sort of behaviour will help India and Indians. Rather, such propaganda is making bigot out of Indians not to mention India’s reputation among nations.
The Muslim community does have its own issues and the more orthodox elements in the community are very divisive. But to conter that divisiveness with even more virulent divisiveness is stupidity. Besides, it does not represent the entire community which is a very heterogenous one like most other communities.
It is disgusting that a CM is allowed to contunue with this kind of behaviour in a democracy and not dismissed.