New Delhi: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Wednesday, March 15, that his government had ensured that an almost equal proportion of Hindus and Muslims was arrested in the state during its recent crackdown on child marriages to put to rest “allegations of communal targeting” against his government by the opposition.
He said it was done even though child marriages are “more prevalent in Muslim-majority areas”, and put the ratio of Muslims to Hindus among those arrested at 55:45.
Citing data from the National Family Health Survey 5 (NFHS 5), he told the state assembly that the prevalence of child marriages is the highest in Dhubri and South Salmara districts – where Muslims are in majority. However, he said, it is not the case in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.
“But, because you communalise every single thing, I told the Dibrugarh SP to pick up a few from there as well. NFHS 4 data collated during Congress times also shows that the highest number of underage marriages and childbirths is done in Lower Assam districts [where there is a greater Muslim population],” he said, according to Indian Express.
Targeting opposition, he said “some of our people” picked up too “because you all [Opposition MLAs] will feel bad”.
Starting from February 3, the Assam Police has arrested over 3,000 people after it launched a crackdown on child marriages in the state. Many of these marriages were even solemnised years ago, resulting in families losing their earning members, husbands and fathers. There have been allegations that the Muslim community has been predominantly targeted. Protests were witnessed in several parts of the state, with women demanding that police release their husbands.
Sarma, on February 6, had said that the drive was aimed at improving public health and public welfare. He had specifically pointed to teenage pregnancy in the state and said that it was alarmingly high at 16.8%. However, rights activists raised objections against the measures being employed by the Assam government to address the issue of child marriage. They described such measures as “futile”, for young mothers would be rendered helpless in the face of sudden arrests of their husbands, who are, in most cases, sole breadwinners of families. Fearing strict action by Assam Police against child marriages, a woman, who tied the knot three months, died by suicide in the Salmara-Mankachar district.
Sarma’s latest comments in the Assembly on Wednesday come against these developments in his state.
He also went on to claim on Wednesday that “Muslims in Assam have never lived as peacefully” as they are today. “Have there been communal clashes in Udalguri? Have there been communal clashes in BTR? [Bodoland Territorial Region]? Have there been communal clashes in Kokrajhar? Muslims in Assam have never lived as peacefully as they are today. They are all getting schools and colleges… Today people are accusing us that 60% of houses under PM Awas Yojna have gone to Muslims. The number of roads that are being built in Muslim villages today have never been built before…,” he said in the Assembly.
The chief minister also slammed the opposition for targeting his government for communal attacks in the state. “Today if someone honestly asks how many minority people in Assam have died of communal attacks, you people keep talking about encounters. Are encounters something that gets done deliberately? Communal attacks are deliberate… If someone brings out their revolver, only then will the police bring out their revolver,” he added.
Ever since Sarma took over as the chief minister of state in May 2021, there has been a rise in the number of alleged encounters in the state. According to the Assam government’s affidavit filed before Gauhati high court on June 20 last year, a total of 54 encounters had taken place since May 2021.
He also accused the opposition of “shedding crocodile tears” for minorities in Assam, and added that the anti-encroachment drive launched by his government in forest lands is based on a law enacted by the Congress-led government at the national level.
According to him, the “real problem” is not evictions but the lack of control over the population in Lower Assam districts.
“The main thing is that till the population is controlled in Lower Assam, we will stop having land… Even if I don’t do an eviction today, where will the next generation live if one family has eight children,” he said. “This law was passed by a Congress government in 2005 that if before 2005, there were some tribal people living there in the forest, they will have rights there. And if before that, if 3-4 generations back, there were general caste people living in the forest, they will have rights to the forest. Nobody else can stay in the forest. Why did the Congress government not make a law that the way tribal people get deeds, our minority people will also get.”
Targeting the Congress party, he said, “Why do we not remember minorities when in power? Today if people from minorities face difficulties, I don’t have the responsibility of answering for that.”