Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday cited a 2005 Supreme Court judgement to defend his recent remarks targeting Miya Muslims in the state, saying that acknowledging the “reality” is neither hatred nor communalism but a recognition of a “grave and long-standing” problem.
The BJP leader has been repeatedly claiming over the past few days that Miya Muslims will be deleted as voters during the special revision of the electoral rolls in the state, and that it was his job to “make them suffer”.
In Assam, “Miya” is a derogatory word used to refer to undocumented immigrants and is exclusively directed at Muslims of Bengali origin. They are often accused of being undocumented migrants from Bangladesh.
Once a pejorative in Assam, from the common use of the honorific “Miya” among South Asian Muslims, the term has now been reappropriated by the community as a self-descriptor to refer to Muslims who migrated to Assam from Bengal during the colonial era.
In a post on social media on Thursday, Sarma said that those who were questioning him about his remarks about the community should “pause and read” what the court had said about Assam while striking down the 1983 Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals Act in 2005.
Those who are attacking me for my remarks on...
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