Those attacking me on ‘Miya’ comment should read SC order: Himanta

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said that those attacking him for his remarks on “Miyas”, referred disparagingly to illegal Bangladeshi Muslims, should read the Supreme Court’s order mentioning the “silent and invidious demographic invasion” of the state.
The CM recently said that ‘Miyas’ were being ‘harassed’ during the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls in the state, as they cannot be allowed to vote in Assam, and claimed that no Assamese — Hindus or Muslims — were facing any problem in the exercise. Opposition parties criticised him for this comment.
“Those who are attacking me for my remarks on ‘Miya’ — a word used in Assam in the context of Bangladeshi Muslim illegal migration — should pause and read what the Supreme Court of India itself has said about Assam,” Sarma said in a post on X.
He quoted from the apex court’s judgment while scrapping the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 (IMDT Act) in 2005:
“The silent and invidious demographic invasion of Assam may result in the loss of the geostrategically vital districts of lower Assam… The influx of illegal migrants is turning these districts into a Muslim-majority region…
“It will then only be a matter of time when a demand for their merger with Bangladesh may be made… Loss of lower Assam will sever the entire land mass of the North East from the rest of India and the rich natural resources of that region will be lost to the Nation.”
The CM claimed that the highest constitutional court of the country used words like “demographic invasion” and warned of the possible loss of territory and national unity, acknowledging that reality is neither hatred nor communalism, nor is it an attack on any community.
“It is a recognition of a grave and long-standing problem that Assam has lived with for decades,” Sarma said, stressing that this is not “my language, not my imagination, and not political exaggeration”.
Sarma asserted that the government’s efforts are on to protect Assam’s identity, security and future, as the Supreme Court cautioned the nation to do.
“Ignoring that warning would be the real injustice to Assam and to India,” the CM added.
Sarma on Tuesday claimed that curtailing the names of ‘Miya’ voters from the electoral rolls was only a preliminary step, and when the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is conducted in the state later, four to five lakh votes of Muslims from Bangladesh will be cancelled.
He had said that there is no problem for Assamese people due to the SR, but the Miyas are facing hardship as they do not belong here, and notices are being sent to them to “keep them under pressure or else they will walk over our heads.
The Congress can ‘’accuse me as much as they want, but my job is to trouble the Miyas so that they cannot vote in Assam’’, he had said.
The opposition parties in the state have alleged that the SR exercise is being used to harass genuine citizens, mostly religious minorities, by ‘BJP agents’, with Form 7 especially being used to complain against bona fide voters.
The Election Commission had directed the conduct of SR in Assam to prepare an error-free electoral roll.
The Integrated Draft Roll was published on December 27, while the filing of claims and objections continued till January 22. The final electoral roll will be published on February 10.
The EC had ordered SR of electoral rolls in Assam as a Supreme Court-supervised exercise to verify citizenship, which is yet to be concluded. The state has separate provisions with regard to citizenship under the Citizenship Act.