Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said he would file “at least 100 cases” against Delhi-based activist Harsh Mander after the activist filed a police complaint accusing the chief minister of hate speech against Bengali Muslims in the state, The Indian Express reported.
Earlier this week, Mander filed a complaint at Delhi’s Hauz Khas police station seeking that a first information report be filed under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to promoting enmity, assertions prejudicial to national integration, statements conducive to public mischief, and acts intended to outrage religious feelings, The Wire reported.
The Delhi Police have said they are examining the complaint.
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.
Over the past week, Sarma has made several remarks targeting the community, and said that it was his job to “make them suffer”.
He claimed on Tuesday that four lakh to five lakh “Miya” voters will be deleted when the special intensive revision of electoral rolls takes place in Assam. “Yes, we are trying to steal some Miya votes,” he said. “Ideally, they should not be allowed to vote in Assam. They should be able to vote in Bangladesh.”
Responding to Mander’s complaint, Sarma said on Saturday that while the activist had filed only one case against him, he would file “at least 100 cases” claiming he had the “necessary material” to do so, The Indian Express reported.
Sarma also accused Mander of having “destroyed” the National Register of Citizens process in Assam.
He alleged that Mander and others had visited the state during the exercise and worked to “create false kin” to include names of “ineligible applicants” in the National Register of Citizens.
Sarma has made similar allegations earlier, claiming that individuals like Mander were responsible for “spoiling” the National Register of Citizens process.
The National Register of Citizens was updated in Assam in 2019, after a mammoth scrutiny of ancestral family documents to weed out “illegal immigrants”, and ended up excluding 19 lakh residents of the state. The updated list, however, has not been notified over six years on.
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Himanta Sarma’s remarks about ‘Miyas’ make a mockery of the Constitution
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