'Miya' Remark Row: MP, CPI(M) File Police Complaints Against Assam CM Himanta, TMC Writes To CJI

The state Trinamool Congress has addressed a letter to Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud seeking judicial action in the matter concerning Himanta Biswa Sarma's comment about the 'Miya' community.

File photo of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma

Source : Getty

New Delhi: A police complaint has been lodged by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and an Independent Rajya Sabha MP against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleging that the CM, who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has made a "hate speech" against the 'Miya' community on the previous day.

The state Trinamool Congress has addressed a letter to Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud seeking judicial action in the matter concerning Himanta Biswa Sarma's comment about 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).

Last week, while responding to reporters' questions on the high price of vegetables in Guwahati, Sarma 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 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 as a gesture of defiance, reported PTI.

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”.

“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.

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”.

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

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”.