'Keeping close watch': Assam CM Himanta on activists opposing evictions of Muslims

Guwahati: In an apparent warning to activists visiting Assam in the wake of the eviction drive targeting the Bengali-speaking Muslims, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that his government was keeping a "close watch" on their visits and activities.

"We are keeping a close watch," Sarma told reporters while referring to visits of activists Harsh Mander, Prashant Bhushan, Jawahar Sirkar, Wazahar Habibullah, besides others following the eviction drives.

"They had visited during the update of the National Register of Citizens and failed the NRC process. They are visiting the lower Assam districts now and meeting the leaders representing the minority community. But we are keeping a close watch to ensure that they can not create a NRC-like situation," Sarma said.

Launching an eviction drive in June, the BJP-led government has evicted hundreds of Bengali-speaking Muslims from forests, village grazing land and other government land in at least six places in Goalpara, Dhubri, Nalbari, Lakhimpur and Golaghat districts. BJP and some local organisations consider the Bengali-speaking Muslims as "illegal migrants" from neighbouring Bangladesh and a "threat" to the identity of the indigenous communities.

Sarma further said that the Opposition Congress, Jamaat-e-Islami and some activists were working against the interests of the indigenous communities as part of a conspiracy.

Bangladeshi remark:

Sayeda Hamid, a former member of the Planning Commission and an activist, during her visit to Assam on Sunday, triggered a row by stating that Bangladeshis can live in Assam. "What is the harm of being Bangladeshis? Bangladeshis can live here..."Hamid said. The statement led many organisations including the influential All Assam Students' Union (AASU) to slam her stating that she had no knowledge about ground realities in Assam and the background of the state's decades-long anti-foreigners movement. "According to the Assam Accord of 1985, which was signed after the six-year-long movement, all post-1971 migrants must be detected and deported. So we condemn Hamid's statement and urge her to withdraw the same," an AASU leader said.