National Spokesperson of AIMIM Waris Pathan has slammed the Assam Assembly's decision to abolish the two-hour jumma breaks for officials and MLAs on Fridays. He said the move was a clear attempt at targeting the Muslim community.
Waris Pathan said: "The BJP government and Chief Ministers like Himanta Biswa Sarma are clearly anti-Muslims. They hate our food habits, our clothing, our lifestyle... and now they hate our namaz. Himanta Biswa Sarma keeps uttering rubbish every other day. If a Muslim goes for namaz for two hours once a week, what's wrong with that? There are so many other disruptions in the assembly, but he has a problem with namaz."
Assam Assembly Scraps Two-Hour Namaz
The Assam Assembly on Friday, August 30, scrapped its policy of allowing a two-hour break for namaz prayers. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the jumma break was a colonial practice and it has been abolished "to increase productivity". He said that the move would increase productivity.
The move came just a day after a bill to scrap the practice of qazi-registered Muslim marriages in Assam was passed in the assembly. Once ratified by the Governor, all marriages, including those within the Muslim community, would have to be registered with the government and not clerics or priests. CM Himanta said that it was a step towards abolishing child marriage.
Move To Scrap Jumma Break Faces Backlash
The abolishing of the Jumma break invited the ire of CM Himanta's political opponents. Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav called Himanta Biswa Sarma a "Chinese version of UP CM Adityanath Yogi". He said Himanta's actions reflected that he wanted "cheap popularity" and accused the BJP of making Muslims its "soft target".
"Assam's Chief Minister is doing this for cheap popularity. Who is he? He just wants cheap popularity. BJP has made Muslims a soft target. Sometimes they introduce the Waqf Board Bill, then they bring CAA-NRC..they keep targetting the minorities somehow...they want to spread hatred in the society,” Tejashwi Yadav said.
Waris Pathan said that the Assam Assembly's move showed that the BJP government has failed in its development agenda. "They don't know how to deal with unemployment. This is why they have targeted just one issue — abuse Muslims, speak rubbish about Islam, polarise the situation, and advance their political agenda."
"The move [to scrap jumma break] is unconstitutional. This is a violation of the Right to practise one's religion and is against the ethos of pluralism and secularism of our country. [Prime Minister Narendra] Modiji says sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas. Does this reflect moving ahead with everyone? You are targeting just one community," he said.