Anti-'Miya' campaign continues in upper Assam, CM Himanta Sarma says protests should be democratic
Miya is a pejorative term for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam.
Sarma said places like Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Sivasagar are the 'borghar' (heartland) of the Assamese.
'If somebody enters our borghar and nobody speaks up, who will rescue the 'jati' (race)?' he asked.
He called for raising a voice against it and agitating but within the law.
'The situation will deteriorate if somebody attempts to wipe out the Assamese. When somebody enters our borghar, it is natural that people will speak up against it,' he said.
The Bengali-speaking Muslims are concentrated in southern, western, central and northern Assam. Upper Assam is the state's eastern part.
Sarma said if people had encroached upon government land after being affected by riverbank erosion, they would have grabbed a small plot of land. He mentioned that people grabbed lands measuring up to 200 to 300 bighas in some places.
The ongoing 'Miya Kheda Andolan' (movement to drive out Miyas) in upper Assam followed eviction drives carried out by the state government in Dhubri, Goalpara, Lakhimpur and Golaghat districts. Thousands of people, mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims, were evicted.
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