After claiming that the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM) – a private educational institution on the outskirts of Guwahati, owned by a Bengali-origin Muslim – is waging “flood jihad”, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stepped up his attack, claiming the varsity is “destroying education” and that the architecture of its domed gate is a sign of “jihad”.
Last week, Sarma had pinned the blame of flash floods in the city on construction work in USTM, located in Meghalaya’s Ri-Bhoi district, stating that deforestation and hill-cutting for the campus was responsible for the floods. The University is promoted by the Education Research and Development Foundation, founded by Mahbubul Hoque, a Muslim of Bengali origin from Assam’s Karimganj district in the Barak Valley. Hoque is also the Chancellor of the University.
On Monday, Sarma accelerated his attack on the university. The large main gate of the University has three domes atop it, about which he said, “It’s embarrassing to go there, you have to go under ‘Mecca’. What we are saying is that there should be a namghar (community prayer hall, part of Assam’s neo-Vaishnavite tradition) also there. ‘Mecca-Medina’, church. Make all three… They have kept a ‘Mecca’ there. Let them make a namghar, make a church. We will walk under all three, why will we walk under just one,” he said.
Questioned by reporters on his use of the term ‘jihad’, he said, “They are doing jihaador baap (slang, translating to ‘father of jihad’). I’m being mild by calling it jihad. It is destroying our education system. Whatever attacks our civilisation, our culture, that is called jihad.”
Sarma’s political opponents have pointed out that he had inaugurated a new block at the university in 2021, in the presence of the Hoque. However, on Monday, Sarma said he had never visited the campus for an inauguration, but had rather gone there for a function attended by the then President Ram Nath Kovind. USTM has the largest auditorium in the area, making it a popular venue for major events, and Sarma said he is having an equally large auditorium built in Guwahati to counter that.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.