Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Credit: PTI File Photo
The Assam government’s proposed laws on ‘love jihad’ and ‘land jihad’ are the latest in a series of legislative actions clearly intended to target the Muslim minority.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said the government is drafting the laws and will pass them soon. Under Sarma, Assam is preaching and practising an extreme and intolerant variety of Hindutva.
Many of the government’s decisions, policies, and actions, as well as Sarma’s pronouncements, stand out for their divisive and anti-minority positions. He is brazen and unapologetic about them.
The two new laws he has proposed are built on bogus issues and only have self-serving justifications. Any law should be based on public interest, but these two are driven by a politics of the most partisan kind.
Sarma says one law on the anvil will ensure stricter punishment, including life imprisonment, for those involved in ‘love jihad’. He says the law is needed because Muslim men marry Hindu girls by impersonating Hindu men on social media.
It is not known why a separate law is needed for that because laws already exist to penalise impersonation. Sarma says the law is being prepared after examination of many cases, but gives no details of any case. The other law being readied makes government permission compulsory for all Hindu-Muslim land deals.
The reason cited is that land belonging to the SCs, the STs, and the OBCs are being bought by dubious means by Muslims. If any illegality or malpractice is found in any land deal, existing laws are good enough to deal with it. There is no need for a special law.
Earlier this year, Assam repealed the Muslim Marriages and Divorces Registration Act, claiming that it encouraged child marriage. Some months ago, it decided to convert government-run madrasas into general education schools.
Some government schemes are designed to discriminate against Muslims and exclude them. Sarma once said vegetable prices were increasing because the traders were Muslims.
Some other BJP-ruled states, like Uttar Pradesh, have also followed discriminatory and blatantly anti-Muslim policies intended to isolate and persecute the minority community. Anti-Muslim sentiments are consciously encouraged and inflamed, and an ecosystem directed against minorities is sought to be created. Assam, under Sarma, is playing a major role in the campaign.