Himanta Biswa Sarma Himanta Biswa Sarma

Claiming that madrassas in border areas are increasingly turning fanatical, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday asked people of the state to identify their “friends and enemies” in order to stop Badruddin Ajmal, Lok Sabha MP and AIUDF chief, from being the chief minister.

Addressing a BJP peace march in Biswanath Charali town, in Biswanath district, in support of the new citizenship law, Sarma also urged All-Assam Students’ Union’s (AASU) adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya to join the BJP and work for the people on behalf of the party. “We will welcome you,” he added.

Sarma said, “If Assamese people today cannot identify the enemy and a friend, then in 10 years Ajmal will become the CM and we will just watch. That’s why I am telling AASU leaders to realise Assam’s problems — today madrassas have started emerging in various places in Assam. They don’t teach computers, nor teach modern education. Today, there are Arabic colleges, Islamic Sahitya Sabhas. If someone starts such institutions for communal harmony, we have no problem…. But…there are Arabic colleges everywhere. Why are colleges of Arabic language needed in Assam?”

Appealing AASU leaders to sit for a discussion, Sarma said, “They [leaders of ongoing protests against CAA] are saying they will make a new political party. (But) you do not need a movement to make a new political party. By forming a political party after a movement [Prafulla] Mahanta has already made people eat sour mango once…”

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