‘Matter of life & death’: Muslims now 40% of Assam population, says CM Himanta Biswa Sarma | Ranchi News

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma RANCHI: Jharkhand should treat Assam as a cautionary tale of how demographic change caused by “infiltration from Bangladesh” has become “a matter of life and death” for the state’s indigenous population, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said Wednesday in Ranchi.
“In Assam, Muslim population is 40%. It was 12% in 1951. We lost districts due to infiltration and demographic change…It isn’t a political issue for me. I keep fighting this day in and out,” Sarma, BJP’s poll in-charge in Jharkhand, said on the sidelines of meetings to take stock of the saffron party’s poll preparations.
Sarma alleged that in Jharkhand, “appeasement politics” by the Hemant Soren govt had triggered a “land jihad”, where illegal immigrants were luring tribals into fake marriages to usurp land.
“We don’t want this state to suffer the way Assam is suffering,” Sarma said. “They (JMM, Congress) are misleading everyone by putting the blame on Centre. But let me tell you, central forces can’t stop infiltration. If it is happening in Khunti district, Centre can’t do anything. It is state govt’s job. I do this regularly in Assam.”
The Assam CM pointed out that even Jharkhand HC recently directed the state govt to identify infiltrators and deport them back. “If you only blame Centre for it, then leave the chair, we will do what needs to be done after coming to office,” Sarma said.
He said if BJP formed the next govt in Jharkhand, it must think of a stringent law to prevent tribal girls falling prey to the designs of infiltrators on pretext of marriage.
On Soren taking over the chief ministership within days of getting bail in a land-linked money laundering case, Sarma alleged that the former committed the equivalent of “a political murder” by forcing his predecessor Champai Soren to step down.
State Congress president Rajesh Thakur said Sarma must pose questions to PM Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah if he genuinely cared for the state and the country. “If he or BJP is talking about infiltration, then it must first accept that the country’s borders aren’t safe under the Modi govt.”