Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Sunday said that the state government has decided to soon introduce a law against “love jihad” with a life imprisonment penalty. The Chief Minister also announced several other decisions taken by the BJP government.
Sarma was speaking in Guwahati at a BJP state executive meeting, where he announced a string of decisions that he said were aimed at “protecting the rights of indigenous people” and of fulfilling the promises made before the 2021 elections.
“At the time of elections, we had spoken about love jihad. In the coming days, we will bring a new law that will introduce life imprisonment as a penalty for love jihad cases,” he said.
“Love jihad” is a term used by the Hindu right-wing to allege that Muslim men coerce Hindu women into converting to Islam by luring them into romantic relationship. States including Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh have introduced “love jihad” laws.
He also said that the state government will introduce different measures to curb the sale of land to Muslims in the state.
He said that the state would make the chief minister’s consent necessary for land transactions between Hindus and Muslims.
“Earlier, there was inter-religious land transfers. Hindus’ lands were bought by Muslims, Muslims’ lands wree bought by Hindus. The government cannot prevent such transactions but the it has decided that for the land of a Hindu to be bought by a Muslim and vice-versa, there can be land sale permission only after the chief minister’s consent is taken,” he said.
Sarma also said that the state government would specifically introduce restrictions on sale of land to a “particular community” in Lower Assam’s Goalpara region.
“Undivided Goalpara was an integral part of Assam, of great importance to the Koch Rajbongshi community. But people from a particular community kept snatching land from our indigenous people there and today we are in the minority in our own land. The government has decided that within the next few days, we will bring a law that in Undivided Goalpara district, no one can sell our land to members of a particular community. The land that continues to remain with tribal people, SC people, OBC people there, we will not let it be transferred anymore,” he said.
He also said that the land sale in important centres of Assam’s neo-vaishnavite culture in Barpeta, Majuli and Batadrava will also be restricted to “native” people.
Sarma also said that “indigenous youth” accounts for the lion’s share of the one lakh government job appointments promise that the government is working to deliver. To add to this, he said that the state government will introduce a “domicile policy” only making people born in Assam to be eligible for government jobs here.
The next Assembly session in Assam will begin on August 22.
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