Himanta dead on target of all salvos
Statement on Bangladeshi Hindus and Assam demography is a bitter pill to swallow for all!
By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Nov 2: Two former chief ministers of the State, State BJP leaders, the AIUDF and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) have fired salvos at State Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma – dead on target of all.
Sarma’s statement on the issue of Bangladeshi Hindus and the changing demography in Assam yesterday seems to be a bitter pill to swallow for all. He said that since the Hindu population is falling fast against the rise in Muslim population in Assam, the Bangladeshi Hindus should be given Indian citizenship.
Reacting sharply to the statement, the AASU has warned the minister not to make any such statement that sounds like that of a fundamentalist. Talking to newsmen in the city today, AASU president Dipangko Kumar th said: “Since Sarma is the Education Minister of the State his statement should be modest enough as the students of the State may follow what he says. Such a statement from a minister may make the students of the State go astray. We warn him not to make any such statement in future. He should stop talking like a fundamentalist. No foreigners, regardless of their faiths, who have entered Assam after March 25, 1971 can be accepted as Indians.”
Former State Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said: “We can’t let Assam be the grazing ground of foreigners. We shouldered a lot of burdens of foreigners. There’s no question of shouldering any burden of the Bangladeshis who entered Assam after March 25, 1971.”
Admitting Sarma’s statement that India and Pakistan were divided based on religions, Mahanta said: “However, while adopting the Constitution of India in 1952, its preamble spelt it out clearly that India is a secular country. To accommodate what Sarma said, the Cosntitution of India has to be changed. The main point is that the Assam Accord has been accepted by all and sundry.”
Reacting to the minister’s statement on the vexed issue, former chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said: “Himanta Biswa Sarma is going to be a second Jinh. What he said has violated both the Constitution of India and the Assam Accord. This minister said in the 2014 Lok Sabha election that the blood of Muslims flows through water pipes in Gujarat.”
