As Assam heads to the polls, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma projects the image of an unstoppable leader. He frames his quest for a second term (and the BJP’s third term) as a ‘done deal’, built on welfare schemes and ‘development’. To his followers, he is ‘Mama’ (uncle), but this ground report from Sreenivasan Jain reveals a darker side: the unprecedented weaponisation of illegal immigration to demonise Assam’s Muslims.
While immigration is a long-standing, sensitive issue, Sarma now uses the term ‘Miya’ – a pejorative for Bengali-speaking Muslims – interchangeably with ‘infiltrator’. However, the facts rarely support the rhetoric. The state’s own National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise excluded only 19 lakh people from a population of 3.5 crore. Sarma himself admitted Muslims made up only 7 lakh of those excluded.
When pressed on these discrepancies, BJP candidate from the Hojai assembly constituency, Shiladitya Dev, told Newslaundry the NRC exercise was “fake”, arguing that a National Population Register enumeration should have happened first. Yet, when reminded that the NRC happened under the BJP’s own watch, the defence shifted: “We wanted the correct NRC.”
This rhetoric has real-world consequences. The language of ‘infiltrators’ has translated into the bulldozing of 15,000 homes, mainly of Bengali-speaking Muslims. In Goalpara, we met families like Abu Chufiyan’s, rendered homeless despite possessing concrete identity proof. “It would be better if you kill us all,” he said, standing amidst the rubble of his life.
Despite the outcry, Sarma remains strong on the ground. Beyond the communal fire, a spate of welfare schemes, including the flagship ‘Orunodoi’, has created a loyal voter base. A controversial pre-election transfer of Rs 9,000 to 40 lakh women through this scheme has only solidified this base. But critics argue that despite the BJP’s talk of ‘good governance’, the party relies on communalism to paper over cracks in Sarma’s record – leaving Assam’s social fabric in a precarious state.
Watch this ground report from Assam.
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