Himanta's 'Miya' remarks: MP, CPI(M) file police complaints, TMC writes to CJI

The CPI(M) and an Independent Rajya Sabha MP on Monday lodged police complaints against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleging that the BJP leader has made a "hate speech" against the 'Miya' community on the previous day.

The state Trinamool Congress has written to Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud seeking judicial action against Sarma also for the same remark against the ‘Miya' community, a term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims of Assam.

AIUDF chief and Lok Sabha MP Badruddin Ajmal has also been named in one of the complaints for making ‘hate speech’ while commenting on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

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Sarma, while responding to reporters' questions last week on the high price of vegetables in Guwahati, had said, "Vegetables are not priced so high in villages. Here the Miya vendors charge us more. Had it been Assamese vendors selling vegetables, they wouldn't have fleeced their own people."

"I will clear all the footpaths of Guwahati and I urge our Assamese people to come forward and start their businesses," he added.

While Ajmal said ‘Miyas’ have been ‘hurt' by the chief minister's comment, the Congress and other opposition parties sniffed a collusion between the BJP and the AIUDF in ‘communal politics' ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections.

‘Miya’ is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam. In recent years, activists from the community have started adopting this word in a gesture of defiance.

Independent Rajya Sabha MP from the state Ajit Bhuyan said the complaint, filed at Dispur police station here against Sarma, was regarding “certain statement made by Constitutional functionaries of our state which are clearly hate speeches against a particular community”.

Bhuyan claimed that such remarks are intended to create a division among different communities in the state and are prejudicial to national integration.

“A closer look at the statement would make it clear that the intention is to promote enmity between different groups on the ground of religion and race,” he said in the complaint, adding that some other ministers and MLAs have also reiterated the CM’s statement.

Mentioning a recent Supreme Court direction for cases against hate speeches, Bhuyan sought registration of a case under Sarma under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and “investigate the matter and to take action”.

The CPI(M) also lodged a complaint at the Latasil police station in the city with similar charges against Sarma of “making hate speeches on communal lines with an ulterior motive to create division and tensions between two religious communities”.

The party, in the complaint signed by its state secretary Suprakash Talukdar and central committee member Ishfaqur Rahman, has brought charges of “making hate speeches” against Ajmal.

They referred to Ajmal’s recent comment that if the UCC comes into force, members of two religious communities will have to wear the same dress and eat the same food.

“They (Sarma and Ajmal) should be booked under relevant sections of the IPC for committing such cognisable offences like promoting enmity between groups on the ground of religion, malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings, assertions prejudicial to national integration, ” the complaint said.

While the police received both complaints, the force is yet to register an FIR against the chief minister, sources said.

Assam TMC president Ripun Bora, in a letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court D Y Chandrachud, prayed for action against Sarma for his ‘hate speech’ made against the ‘Miya’ community and initiation of suo motu contempt proceeding against the Assam government.

He maintained that Sarma’s statement could “not only provoke a section of people but also incite communal hatred”.

Bora, a former Rajya Sabha MP, contended that the government of Assam should have taken steps for registering a case in this connection.