Guwahati: The Assam government has decided to stop issuing Aadhaar cards to anyone above 18 years of age. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made this announcement at a press briefing in Dispur on June 13.
The reason, he said, is straightforward. Assam has already achieved 100 per cent Aadhaar saturation. In fact, in some districts, the saturation has gone beyond that — touching 114 to 115 percent. That extra percentage, the CM indicated, points to something deeply worrying.
“This move has been taken to prevent Bangladeshi infiltrators from obtaining Aadhaar cards,” CM Sarma said.
It should be mentioned that security forces are capturing infiltrators in regular intervals in the state. These infiltrators always try to obtain Indian ids like AADHAR cards with the help of local touts to travel to other states of India. This move by the Assam government will curb the issue forever.
The ban, however, will not apply to everyone immediately. People from Scheduled Tribe (ST), Scheduled Caste (SC), and Tea Community backgrounds will still be able to apply for Aadhaar — but only for the next six months.
Even in these cases, the process will be closely watched. The District Commissioner will personally monitor all Aadhaar issuances for these communities. Nothing will slip through without scrutiny.
For children below 18 years of age, Aadhaar cards will continue to be issued. However, parents will have to go through proper identity verification before their child’s card is processed.
In special or exceptional cases, the state government itself will be the issuing authority — not the District Commissioner. This centralisation of authority signals how seriously the government is treating the matter.
CM warns against attempts to divide communities
CM Sarma also used the press briefing to issue a strong warning against what he described as organised attempts to create tension between communities in Assam.
He said that certain groups are deliberately trying to stoke clashes between Assamese and Hindi-speaking people, as well as between Assamese and Bengali-speaking communities. The CM said this is being done to distract people from serious crimes taking place in the state.
He pointed to two recent cases — a Love Jihad-linked murder in Nalbari and a forceful beef-feeding incident in Goalpara. Last week, he said, attempts were made to trigger communal tension in Guwahati between Assamese and Hindi-speaking residents, precisely to shift public attention away from these cases.
The CM mentioned that thousands of fake social media accounts in Hindu, Assamese names, run by Bangladeshi Miya-Muslims, are being used to spread hatred and division in the state.
“But till I remain the Chief Minister of Assam, such conspiracies will not succeed,” CM Sarma said firmly.
CM Sarma also responded to the “blackmailing” by Bangladeshi-origin Miya-Muslims over the issue of recording Assamese as their mother tongue in the upcoming national census.
The CM’s response was blunt — if people speak only the Mymensingh dialect of Bangla at home, then what is the point of registering Assamese as their mother tongue? It is up to them what they like to register, it was earlier an appeasement politics and it doesn’t have any validity now, he said.
“Assamese are not so weak. As long as the sun and moon remain in the universe, Assamese will be the language of Assam — despite all threats,” he added.
