‘Choosing Bengali Over Assamese in Census Will Help Identify Bangladeshi Migrants’: Sarma
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday, while responding to a section of the minority community in the state that wants to list Bengali as their mother tongue in the census, said that Assamese will remain the official language in Assam.
Sarma was responding to All BTC Minority Students' Union (ABMSU) leader Mainuddin Ali, who had sparked a controversy in Assam by claiming that Bengal-origin Muslims would record Bengali as their mother tongue in the upcoming census. The student leader said that by doing so, Assamese will be reduced to a minority language in the state.
"During the census this time, we will clearly say we won't write Assamese (as mother tongue). We will erase the Assamese language and if we do so, Assamese will be reduced to a minority language," Ali said.
Sarma, while emphasising that Assamese will legally remain the official language, said that actions [like Ali’s] will help identify undocumented Bangladeshis residing in Assam, the Times of India reported.
“A wrong notion is spread during the census making the language, which is spoken, important. Then a section of minority people starts blackmailing that they won't speak in Assamese. If you speak in Bengali at home, why would you give wrong information of speaking in Assamese? Giving wrong information during the census is a crime," Sarma added.
Sarma dismissed Ali’s claims saying that this is not a new threat. The chief minister cited the example of riverine areas, where many Bengali-origin Muslims reside, and said that they had chosen Bengali as their mother tongue in the previous census as well. Only 30% of them wrote Assamese as their mother tongue and among them, the number of Assamese-speaking indigenous Muslims (Desi, Goria, Moria, and Jolha) is the highest, Sarma said.
"Immigrant Muslims have always written Bengali as their mother tongue. This is nothing new to give threats," Sarma said.
Ali had also criticised Sarma over the eviction drives being carried out in the state.
Earlier this week, the Dhubri district administration tore down over 2,000 Miya Muslim households at the site of the Assam government’s proposed 3,400-MW thermal power plant in Bilashipara, in Dhubri district.
Sarma has said that the eviction drives will continue in Assam.
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