GUWAHATI: The incumbent Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), ahead of the Assam Legislative Assembly elections, have raised an issue on "cultural fight" in Assam. With that, the saffron party has been critical of the Miya community’s emancipation, especially in their recent demands to build a Char Chapori museum within Sankaradeva Kalakshetra.
Just recently, senior leader Himanta Biswa Sarma had stated that there are two streams of Muslims in Assam - the indigenous and the ones from Bangladesh. As such, the fight in the upcoming election will be a matter of culture and the BJP will demur from giving any tickets to the Miyas.
The statement has been indicative of the BJP's electoral push to consolidate the Assamese cultural flank thereby eliminating the Muslims from the East Bengal origin. They have been in favour of Assamese Muslims politically even during the 2016 Assembly elections.
The BJP, in their vision document of 2016 for the assembly elections, had highlighted about “constructing Ajan Pir Kalakshetra (on the lines of Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra) to showcase the rich socio-religious Islamic culture in Assam.”
This caters well to the political rhetoric of Assamese ethnicity to compensate over the religious undertones. But the issues can get complicated on the ground this term.
In the BJP's outreach programs, minorities have joined in considerable numbers in lower Assam. This was informed to G Plus by the BJP’s own Minority Morcha President, Mukhtar Hussain. Plus the BJP has been the beneficiary of votes from the Char people in constituencies such as the Barkhetry. The people from these areas are predominately Muslims who do not fit the aforementioned indigenous mark.
As such, the comments might prove to be counterproductive to the party in the lower Assam campaign.
G Plus spoke to the BJP Minority Morcha President regarding the impact of the comments. "The comments are intended against Bangladeshi nationals who are in Assam post 1971. It has nothing to do with Muslims who have been the biggest beneficiary of this government since Independence," said Hussain. On the issue of whether the BJP will give tickets to Miyas, the leader replied that "there is nothing called Miya language." He further stated, “The demands of Miya museum and Miya Public School have taken a political turn.”
A leader from the party has agreed that the selective interpretation of the comments might affect the BJP.
With the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) tying up as a Mahagathbandhan or grand alliance, it has proven to be another challenge to absorb the minority votes in lower Assam. The BJP believes the alliance will have no impact on the saffron party as Congress has been continuously eroding itself in lower Assam. "The members of Congress are joining the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and the BJP. Congress is not a factor anymore," added Hussain.
The AJP, on its own, has no presence in the belt but with the tie-up with Raijor Dal (RD) can dent the BJP's chances. Meanwhile, the BJP minority leaders feel this will only benefit the BJP as the Congress -AIUDF votes will be divided between the regional parties. In such a situation, the only way to counter the BJP would be a seat sharing agreement between all the challenger parties. So far the AJP and the RD has distanced itself from the AIUDF-Congress.
