Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party does not need votes of the “Miya” people of char, or riverine sandbar areas, for the next 10 years till they set aside practices such as child marriage, PTI reported.
While the term “Miya” is used by Muslims across South Asia to mean “gentleman”, the word is seen in Assam as an ethnic slur to describe Muslims of Bengali origin.
“When elections come, I myself will request them not to vote for us,” Sarma told reporters. “When you will follow family planning, stop child marriage and shed fundamentalism, then you vote for us. To complete these, it will take 10 years. We will seek votes after 10 years, not now.”
Sarma said that those voting in favour of him and the BJP should not have more than two or three children, must send their daughters to schools, cannot indulge in child marriage and leave fundamentalism to adopt Sufism. “When these conditions are fulfilled, I will go with you to ‘char’ to seek votes,” Sarma said.
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