'I will take sides to stop Miyas from taking over entire Assam': CM Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that he would take sides in order to prevent the "Miyas" or Bengali speaking Muslims from "taking over entire Assam."

Sarma was speaking in the ongoing session of the state Assembly while opposing an adjournment motion moved by the Opposition parties to discuss about the law and order situation in the state following alleged rape of a minor girl in Nagaon district, recently.

"I will take sides, what can you do about it?" Sarma told the Opposition when they accused the CM of being partisan regarding a recent diktat by several local organisations to the "Miyas" to leave Upper (eastern) Assam. Sarma and leaders of several organisations in Assam call the Bengali-speaking Muslims as Miyas and BJP often allege the community to be infiltrators from neighbouring Bangladesh.

"My request to the Miya-Muslim community is not to forcefully try to settle in indigenous Assamese areas against their will, this will aggravate societal fault lines and become a possible security issue," Sarma posted on X in the evening.

Bengali speaking Muslims, who constitute about 25 per cent of the state's population, live mainly in Lower, North and Central Assam districts. But several Assamese nationalist organisations in Upper Assam claim that a large number of "Miyas" have started settling in Upper Assam districts and this, according to them, have posed a threat to the identity and culture of the indigenous Assamese people. Sarma earlier said that indigenous people have become minorities in lower Assam due to infiltration and increase in population of the "Miyas."

Tension in Upper Assam: 

Sarma made the statement amid tension prevailing in Assamese-dominated upper Assam districts over a diktat to the "Miyas" to leave the administrative region. Following this, some Muslim traders in central Assam's Nagaon district decided not to send fish to Upper Assam. "This is an economic blockade," Sarma said.

Leader of the Opposition and Congress MLA Debabrata Saikia, while moving the adjournment motion, said that the BJP-led government in the state has failed to maintain law and order and check crime against women.

"At least 20 cases of rape have taken place in 24 hours and according to statictics furnished by the government, at least six rape cases have been registered daily since BJP came to power in 2016. Again some people from lower Assam districts have been attacked in Upper Assam. They are Indian citizens and have the right to visit and settle anywhere in the country," Saikia said.

As Speaker Biswajit Daimari refused to allow the adjournment motion, MLAs belonging to Congress, AIUDF and a few others staged a walk out amid Sarma's statement. "Let them (Opposition) compete for their votes. I am not in the competition," Sarma said.

Sarma's statement came two days after Sivasagar MLA and anti-CAA leader Akhil Gogoi said the BJP is trying to recreate the 2002 Gujarat episode in Assam to retain power. "To win elections, they desire to create a situation of instability and conflict in Assam," he said. On Tuesday, Gogoi was escorted out of the Assembly after he strongly voiced his opposition to Sarma's "communal statement."