Following his statement on the day that he “will take sides” and “will not let Miya Muslims take over all of Assam,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of Assam has been accused by a number of opposition leaders of attempting to “promote enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion and race” and has filed a police complaint. The allegation had been received at the Dispur police station, according to Guwahati East DCP Mrinal Deka, but as of Wednesday night, no formal case had been filed.
On behalf of the United Opposition Forum, a coalition of groups opposed to the BJP and its allies, it was filed by Lurinjyoti Gogoi of the Assam Jatiya Parishad and Bhupen Borah, the president of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee. Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly Debabrata Saikia, Congress MP Rakibul Hussain from Dhubri, and Independent MP Ajit Bhuyan were also among the leaders who went to file the complaint.
Leaders said that unless Sarma was “arrested or restrained,” there might be a “riot-like situation” in the state and accused him of engaging in a “criminal conspiracy” to incite disturbance. They have asked that he be charged with criminal conspiracy and inciting discord between various Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita factions. This occurs in the context of growing tensions between communities throughout Assam, which intensified following the reported gangrape of a 14-year-old girl in Nagaon district on August 22. The incident, in which Bengali Muslims are the accused, has been referred to as a “attack on the indigenous” by Sarma and a number of his ministers. The event and the ongoing intercommunal conflicts in the Sivasagar district are mentioned in the complaint.
“You might be aware that the entire Assam is erupting in anger against dastardly act of rape committed on a young lady from Dhing [in Nagaon]. Taking advantage of such heinous act (sic) the accused person is trying to whip up communal frenzy by targeting a particular community, which had led to (an) attack on some people belonging to (the) religious minority in Sivasagar (district) by BJP workers and leaders,” the complaint said. It further adds: “This has been done as part of a conspiracy to create a riot-like situation in the state and the accused named Himanta Biswa Sarma and other BJP leaders are part of the criminal conspiracy to create such unrest”. Sarma, according to the complainants, has a “history of making provocative statements targeting a particular community”, referring to the chief minister’s remarks last year that he would “clear” Guwahati’s footpaths of “Miya” vegetable vendors.
“Miya” is a pejorative term used for Bengali-Muslims. The complaint also referred to an incident from last week in which the CM took a swipe at a reporter over his religious identity. “One year back, he had implored people to evict people belonging to a religious community (he termed them as ‘Miya’) from Guwahati. Continuing his tirade against the religious minority the accused person on 4-8-2024 targeted a journalist named Shah Alom with obvious communal innuendos,” the complaint states. It also referred to the chief minister’s statement that the Nagaon incident was part of a “bigger intention of grabbing land and threatening the identity of the Assamese people”. “Such continuous rants in public have the potential to create disharmony between different communities… If such a person is not arrested and restrained immediately, he can create a riot-like situation in the state for getting political mileage out of it,” states the complaint.
