‘Loudspeakers not integral to religion’, says Assam CM

As the political debate surrounding the demand for a ban on loudspeakers in mosques heats up, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Monday, said that “our civilisational value has been under attack for a long time”.
He said that loudspeaker is not integral to religion and wherever it is there, it causes inconvenience and added that it is the duty of a secular state to switch off such irritants. CM Sarma also weighed in his thoughts on jihadi activities in Assam, various communal clashes across the country, and the future of the Congress.
“Our civilizational value has been under attack for quite some time. So if there’s a genuine demand around exams (to not play loudspeakers), don’t play it… in a secular state, it’s a duty to shut anything irritant to students/other communities,” ANI quoted the Assam CM as saying.
Chief Minister Sarma said that in the last decade, there have been several attempts by fundamentalists to create a base in Assam with the help of sympathisers but Assam Police have thwarted their plans. There has been an integrated action amongst states against jihadis, he added.
“There’s an integrated action amongst states against jihadis. We got inputs from Central agencies regarding the presence of jihadi elements & have acted upon that and a probe is underway. I’m confident more people will come to light with some nexus with jihadis. We’re looking parallelly to whether PFI & CFI are linked to fundamentalists and jihadis. I cannot confirm, but we have already requested the Centre to put a ban on PFI & CFI for their fundamentalist activity”, the Assam Chief Minister said.