(Image credit: ANI)
A political uproar has been created in Assam that is in the polls when chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made strong comments against ‘Miya Muslims’ who are mostly used to denote Bengali speaking Muslims in Assam. This was based on his remarks when the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was in progress, where objections could be invoked using Form 7 to the names in which the elector objected due to reasons that such a name was ineligible.
In reaction to the criticism, Sarma made it clear that he was only considering illegal migrants of Bangladeshi origin and not any religion or Indian nationals. To justify his stand, he referred to previous Supreme Court remarks that the immigrant practice of entry into Assam is a danger of a demographic invasion because of the unlawful immigration and the potential long term endangers the integrity of the territories and the social stability.
The chief minister insisted that it is not a communal issue but a question of survival of the identity, security and future of Assam. Instead of targeting a religious group, he claimed that the government is only trying to ensure that it actually has a response to illegal immigration and that the elections are legal.
The reaction of congress leaders and civil society groups was loud and termed the remarks as being unconstitutional and dangerous. In his request to the Chief Justice of India, Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia requested the Chief Justice to intervene in suo motu and accused that the SIR exercise is also being misused to suppress the votes of a given community. He said that by publicly stating that he was planning to remove huge volumes of ‘Miya’ votes, he was publicly communally targeting and would weaken the non partisan nature of the Election Commission. The Gauhati High Court has also listed a Public Interest Litigation, which is asking the court to scrutinize the alleged widespread misuse of Form 7, and the chances of voter disenfranchisement.
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