The Assam Legislative Assembly on Friday, August 30 abolished the decades-old two-hour jumma break to allow for an extended pause in the proceedings of the House to facilitate the Muslim members to offer their namaaz. In Assam, the practice dated back to 1937 when it was introduced by Syed Saadulla of the Muslim League. According to the previous rule, the sitting of the Assembly on Friday used to be adjourned at 11 am to facilitate Muslim members to go for namaaz, but as per the new rule, the Assembly will conduct its proceedings without any adjournment for religious purposes.
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The order to this effect stated that the amendment was done to scrap the colonial practice which aimed at dividing the society on a religious basis. It said the Speaker proposed that the Assam Legislative Assembly must conduct its proceedings on Fridays like any other day without any adjournment to facilitate Muslim members to go for namaaz given the secular nature of the Constitution. A seemingly elated Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the step prioritises productivity and has shed “another vestige of colonial baggage” while expressing his gratitude to the Assembly Speaker and the legislators for the “historical decision." The Assam Legislative Assembly is not the first to have done away with the Jumma break as there are precedents. Last year, Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Rajya Sabha chairman, announced alteration regarding the Friday sittings in the House.
The Assam Assembly’s action comes at a time when there is a perceived move against the Muslims of the state on different fronts, and leading this charge is none other than the chief minister himself. To state the least, Sarma has been vitriolic in his various observations on the Muslims, particularly the miyans or the Bengali-speaking Muslims, and has been accused of pursuing a politics based on hate and divisiveness. The trigger for the latest round of his diatribe can be traced to the recent gang rape of a minor Hindu girl allegedly by three Bengali-speaking Muslim boys, which sparked an outrage across the state; police promptly arrested one of the accused who, however, died after falling into a pond while trying to escape while the two other accused are still at large. Soon after, in the Assembly, Sarma warned that the miyans will not be allowed to venture into Upper Assam. He dared the Opposition to do whatever they want, but he was going to “take sides” and “will not let Miyan Muslims take over all of Assam;” it is perhaps a different matter that the Constitution mandates that the state must protect the life, property, and dignity of all citizens, irrespective of faith, language, or region.
These developments are taking place at a time when sooner rather than later Assam will start preparing for the next Assembly elections in 2026. Given that, a clear division between Hindus and Muslims in the run-up to the elections will certainly help the ruling BJP to further consolidate the Hindu vote in its bid to capture power for the third time in a row. However, people of the state must be on guard against any breakdown in law and order as political parties ask for votes along such fault lines.