MAN IN POLL POSITION

THE BJP HAS THE UNENVIABLE TASK OF MANAGING HIMANTA BISWA SARMA’S AMBITION AND KEEPING HIM ON ITS SIDE TO RETAIN A PRESENCE IN THE NORTHEAST

- KAUSHIK DEKA

On November 6, Assam’s finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted a video on his Twitter handle claiming that supporters of the AIUDF (All India United Democrat­ic Front) chief Badruddin Ajmal shouted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans to welcome the Dhubri Lok Sabha MP at Silchar airport a day earlier. There is no official verification of whether the supporters did indeed shout the slogan, they claim they were hailing local MLA Aziz Khan, but Sarma’s tweet is just another example of the rising commu­nal decibel in Assam, heading for an assembly election in less than six months. By consistently targeting the AIUDF, a party representing the interests of Muslims of immigrant origin, the Assam minister is aiming to consolidate the Hindu vote in a state where Muslims form 35 per cent of the population, the highest in the country.

Indeed, the ruling BJP in the state has been brazenly trying to ignite religious polarisation to replace the Assamese­ speaking people’s linguistic fears in the electoral narrative. If the state government shut down government­run madrassas— along with Sanskrit tols—it also rejected a Congress MLA’s request to expedite the process of setting up a museum reflecting the culture and heritage of the inhabitants of Assam’s ‘Char Chaporis’, or the riverine sand belts of the Brahmaputra that are home to a vast majority of Bangla­-speaking Muslims who originally migrated from Bangladesh. Interestingly, a 16­member panel, which included six BJP MLAs, had already approved the proposal.