Guwahati: In a sharp political retort that has sparked a new round of debate, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on July 17 accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of selectively standing for Bengali-speaking Muslims only, rather than the larger Bengali community. His comments come amid an ongoing war of words between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress over identity politics in the Northeast.
Addressing reporters in Guwahati, CM Sarma said, “The question is whether Mamata Banerjee likes Bengalis or only Muslim Bengalis. My answer is — only Muslim Bengalis.” He was responding to recent remarks by Mamata Banerjee, who had accused the BJP of using language and identity as tools to polarise voters in Assam and neighbouring states.
CM Sarma’s statement followed up with a strong warning: “If she comes to Assam only for Muslim Bengalis, the Assamese people and Hindu Bengalis will not spare her.” Though he did not elaborate further on what he meant, his remarks clearly hinted at brewing tensions over illegal migration, community identity, and political alignments.
The Assam CM remark comes at a time the state is fighting against the illegal immigration from Bangladesh and huge land encroachment by migrants. Assam — a state with a long and often painful history of conflict over “insider vs outsider” and indigenous versus immigrant narratives have of late faced huge aggression by Bangladeshi origin Muslims.
TMC supremo and Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee has been criticising BJP for nationwide crackdown against Bangladeshi intruders and eviction drives in Assam. Taking Bengali language as a shield she and her party opposed the ongoing nationwide crackdown and evictions in Assam and termed it as anti Bengali.
Refuting her claims CM Sarma said, “She is not coming to represent Bengalis as a whole. She’s only looking to protect a particular community for political gain. This is dangerous, and Assam will not accept it.”
Assam has seen increasing political churn around the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh, especially from the 1980s onwards. The issue is deeply emotional and politically charged, especially for the indigenous Assamese and Hindu Bengali communities. CM Sarma said that if Mamata Banerjee is so concerned about Bengali people why is she not implementing Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in West Bengal. The reason is that she is only concerned about the Bengali speaking Muslims not about the whole Bengali community, he added.
