Assamese will remain official language: Sarma after census row
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Guwahati: CM
Himanta Biswa Sarma
on Thursday said Assamese will remain the official language in Assam, despite threats from a section of the minority community to list Bengali as their mother tongue during the census.
He added that the Assamese language would continue to thrive and is not reliant on migrant Muslims.
Sarma was responding to an announcement made on Wednesday by All BTC Minority Students' Union (ABMSU) leader Mainuddin Ali, who declared that Bengal-origin Muslims in Assam would record Bengali as their mother tongue in the upcoming census.
This declaration has sparked a controversy in the state. The chief minister reacted firmly, asserting that Assamese will legally remain the official language of Assam, even though leaders like Ali have pledged to diminish the status of the Assamese language to that of a minority language.
However, Sarma said such actions, as stated by the ABMSU leader, would assist in identifying illegal Bangladeshis residing in Assam.
"A wrong notion is spread during the census making the language, which is spoken, important. Then a section of minority people starts blackmailing that they won't speak in Assamese. If you speak in Bengali at home, why would you give wrong information of speaking in Assamese? Giving wrong information during the census is a crime," said Sarma.
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He said 70% of the people of char (riverine) areas, which are home to a large number of Bengal-origin Muslims, mentioned Bengali as their mother tongue in the previous census too. He said only 30 percent write Assamese as their mother tongue and among them, the number of Assamese-speaking indigenous Muslims (Desi, Goria, Moria, and Jolha) is the highest.
"Immigrant Muslims have always written Bengali as their mother tongue.
This is nothing new to give threats," Sarma said, affirming that eviction drives will continue in Assam.
Speaking at a protest programme in Kokrajhar on Wednesday against eviction in minority areas in Dhubri district, Ali, working president of ABMSU, said Assamese will become a "language of minority" in the state if Bengal-origin Muslims mention Bengali as their mother tongue in the census.
"During the census this time, we will clearly say we won't write Assamese (as mother tongue).
We will erase the Assamese language and if we do so, Assamese will be reduced to a language of minority," Ali said.
"We, the Bengal-origin Muslims, clearly say that we won't write Assamese. The Assamese language and Assamese community will be reduced to a minority. The way in which the BJP govt has unleashed atrocities on Muslims, we are surprised," Ali added. He also criticised CM Himanta Biswa Sarma for the eviction where hundreds of houses have been razed down in Dhubri while clearing govt lands from encroachment.
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