Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday alleged that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was trying to "shield Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh", and accused the opposition party of distorting his remarks on the Bengali-speaking population in the north eastern state.
He asserted that all bona fide citizens of Assam, including Bengali-speaking people, support the government’s uncompromising stand against illegal Muslim immigration from Bangladesh.
“Assam has been waging a relentless war against illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims for several decades. The recent attempt by the @AITCofficial to distort my media remarks and portray our stand as anti-Bengali is nothing but a desperate ploy to shield Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh, whose very presence threatens to alter the demographic fabric of our nation,” Sarma said in a post on X.
“Let it be made absolutely clear: in Assam, every Indian citizen—including Bengali-speaking people—fully understands our position and supports our uncompromising stand against illegal Muslim immigration from Bangladesh,” he added.
Sarma had said on Thursday that writing Bengali as the mother tongue in census documents will quantify the number of foreigners living in the state.
He made that comment in response to All BTC Minority Students' Union leader Mainuddin Ali, who threatened that all Bengali-speaking Muslims would stop writing Assamese as their mother tongue in the census, thereby making the people speaking the state language a minority.
The TMC on Saturday wondered if singing the national anthem and the national song, both written in Bengali, would make Sarma an "illegal Bangladeshi".