By Abira Das
Is it the government’s responsibility to make mullahs? So, I ordered them to immediately put a stop to these businesses (dukans) of mullah-producing madrasas. An official said, “Sir, there will be a huge issue (bawal).” But I told him that let such small issues happen, I would deal with it. But these madrasas should be immediately closed down. In Assam, I closed down over 700 madrasas. No one had the guts to raise any issue with it…
…Wherever she (Mamata Banerjee) sees mullahs, she starts reading namaz right then and there…
Love Jihad used to happen in our place. They use a Hindu name on Facebook, and after marriage, it is disclosed that they are not Hindu. I’ll break their legs if they make duplicate accounts with fake names on Facebook…you can’t misguide our daughters and do Love Jihad…
I want to tell Didi that our country is a Hindu nation, so if one has to stay here then one must learn to stay here like a Hindu. It was Hindus who had created this nation…
In speech after speech this election season, Assam chief minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma has openly targeted the Muslim community with rabidly communal language and on the other hand, exploited religious sentiments by raising the issue of the Ram Mandir, in complete disregard to the Model Code of Conduct. The above are just a few examples.
Buoyed by the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) failure to clamp down on the violations, Sarma has villainised Muslims by talking about ‘Love Jihad’, ‘Land Jihad’ and the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. He has repeatedly referred to the community with the denigrating term ‘Mullah’. In several speeches, the Assam chief minister credited PM Modi with the construction of the Ram Mandir and urged voters not to be satisfied with it, as the saffron party, according to him, had plans to build Gyanvapi temple in Varanasi and Krishna temple in Mathura. Following in the footsteps of PM Modi, Sarma also referred to Muslims as ‘ghuspetiyon‘ (infiltrators) and termed madrasas as ‘mullah-producing organisations’ during his Jharkhand rally on May 15.
In one of his speeches, Sarma took a jibe at Congress and questioned the religious identity of Sonia Gandhi, depending on which, Sarma said, she would be allowed entry to the Ram Mandir. In almost all the speeches that Alt News followed, he targeted the Opposition by claiming that if voted to power, they would give reservation to Muslims. In one, he complained that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee would start offering Namaz whenever she saw a ‘mullah’.
Several parties have written to the poll panel drawing its attention to the model code violations by Sarma. Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah wrote to chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar stating that Sarma had “willfully” and “deliberately” violated the model code of conduct in his campaign speeches. The Assam state unit of the Trinamool Congress complained to the ECI regarding Sarma’s hate speech in Jharkhand (documented below). The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind also appealed to the poll panel to take cognizance of the divisive speeches delivered by him in Bihar on May 18 (documented below). However, the ECI is yet to act on these complaints. Alt News has already reported how the election commission’s double standards have empowered BJP leaders to make brazen violations of the poll codes.
Following are a few excerpts from Himanta Biswa Sarma’s speeches:
Barasat, West Bengal, May 19
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
