GUWAHATI: The Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia has decried remarks made by Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma at a conclave of the state unit of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha at Sivasagar as communal and divisive.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader had stated that the upcoming Assam election 2021 will be a "fight between two civilisations." He emphasised that the BJP should be focussed more "on ideology than electoral politics."
Meanwhile, Debabrata Saikia pointed out that the Ahom dynasty had united various tribes and ethnic communities to build a greater Assam where everyone lived with honour and individuals secured jobs and rewards on the basis of merit, irrespective of caste or creed. As a result, at different times during the reign of the Ahom dynasty the likes of Ismail Siddique alias Bagh Hazarika fought shoulder to shoulder with Lachit Borphukon and others when armies of Turbak or the Mughal army led by Rajput king Man Singh attacked Assam.
Referring to ‘Love Jihad’ and the civilization clash, Debabrata Saikia said it was reprehensible that a message loaded with incitement and divisiveness should have been issued by Sarma from Sivasagar, which was the base of Chaolung Sukapha, who came as a migrant but stayed on to lay the foundation of a composite greater Assam. He described it as an insult to the secular traditions of Chaolung Sukapha and the Tai-Ahom community the fact that any attempt to create communal conflict was made at an event where BJP leaders and workers had donned Ahom headgear, carried Ahom swords, etc.
Saikia added that it was an attempt to divert attention from public grievances regarding important issues such as unemployment, poverty, settlement of the illegal influx problem, the revival of the Nagaon and Cachar paper mills, boosting of the agriculture sector, improvement of the work culture, etc. He urged the youths of Assam not to fall into the trap of bigotry laid by the BJP and, consequently, make wrong choices.