CM Sarma slams Mamata for favouring Bengali Muslims, questions CAA block in Bengal

Guwahati, July 18: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has alleged that his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee is only concerned about Bengali-speaking Muslims.

The remark was made by Sarma on Thursday after the Trinamool Congress chief's recent accusation against the BJP of weaponising linguistic identity to achieve political goals.

“The question is whether Mamata Banerjee likes Bengalis or only Muslim-Bengalis. My answer is only Muslim-Bengalis,” Sarma said; adding, “If she comes to Assam for the Muslim-Bengalis, the Assamese people and Hindu-Bengalis will not spare her.”

Sarma questioned if Banerjee is interested in the protection of the Bengali-speaking people, why has she “not implemented the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, in her state?”

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 paves the way for granting Indian nationality to undocumented non-Muslim migrants -- Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians -- from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan -- who came to India before December 31, 2014.

Sarma maintained that Bengali-speaking Hindus have assimilated into the greater Assamese society and their language, culture, religion and all aspects are protected here.

“Mamata Banerjee should realise that in Assam, Bengali-Hindus are not only protected, they have been assimilated into the greater Assamese landscape. They have their ministers, MLAs,” the chief minister said.

He said the Bengali-Hindus speak in their language, practise their religion and all aspects of their culture here, adding that Bengali is an “associate official language in the state and the official language in Barak valley”.

“There is no division between Bengalis and Assamese here,” the chief minister added.

Banerjee has been accusing the Centre and the BJP-ruled states of systematically targeting Bengali-speaking migrants by branding them as “illegal Bangladeshi” or ‘Rohingya’.

- PTI