Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said his government will soon introduce a law providing life imprisonment in “love jihad” cases.
He also said several measures had been taken to “protect” Aboriginal land rights and government job opportunities.
Addressing a meeting of BJP chief ministers here, Sarma said: “We talked about 'love jihad' during the elections. Soon, we will bring in a law that will provide life imprisonment in such cases. Right-wing groups use the term “love jihad” to accuse Muslim men of a strategy of luring Hindu women to convert through marriage.
Sarma said a new domicile policy will also be introduced soon, under which only those born in Assam will be eligible for state government jobs.
The chief minister asserted that his government has always been committed to protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and said they had been given priority in “one lakh government jobs” on offer in line with pre-poll promises, which will be revealed once the full list is released. It's obvious.
In contrast, Sarma claimed that people from “particular communities” occupied up to 30 per cent of police posts in the state police force under the Congress government when the current Dhubri MP was in charge of the home ministry, but no To elaborate further.
Congress party's Rakipur Hussain won the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat in this year's elections.
Sarma said that while “encroached land equivalent to the size of Chandigarh” has been liberated by illegal settlers, land equivalent to “20 times the size of the northern Union Territory” is still in the hands of the encroachers in the state.
Other moves to protect land rights include a resolution to enact a law banning the sale of land to people from “certain communities” in the undivided Goalpara region.
“The complete Goalpara is very important to our community of Koch-Rajbongshi. But people of a particular community have taken away our land and made us a minority in our own place,” he claimed.
He said that under the proposed new law, land owned by tribals and people belonging to scheduled castes and other backward castes will not be allowed to be transferred in undivided Goalpara.
Sarma said that similarly, a law would be enacted to allow transfer of land only among residents of Barpeta, Majuli and Bhattadrava, important centers for Vaishnava followers.
“If the public wants more areas to be protected in a similar manner, we will do so. We know we cannot drive anyone to Bangladesh, but with our last shred of strength, we will work to secure Assam's future,” he asserted.
The chief minister said the Assam government has also taken a decision on the sale of land between Hindus and Muslims.
He said that while the government could not prevent such transactions, it had to seek the chief minister's consent before undertaking the transactions.
The state government had issued a similar notification on March 7, halting land sales between two different communities for three months to avoid any possible “communal clashes” ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Sarma said another legislation would be enacted to create “micro-tribal belts and blocks” to protect villages or small, scattered tribal settlements outside designated zones and blocks.
Referring to the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the chief minister claimed that the riots in the state were an act of “fraud as not more than eight people have applied under the act so far”.
Sarma said his government would take “bold steps” to clear the biometric information of 900,000 people collected and “frozen” during the update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
He insisted that the BJP can run for a third consecutive term on the basis of the work it has done for the masses, while also mocking the Congress party for trying to downplay the saffron party's winning streak.
“Congress has been trying to act as if their 99 seats are bigger than our 240 seats. Maybe, as per the math followed in Bangladesh or Pakistan, it is, but it is not the case in India,” he said.
Sarma also asserted that the BJP will return to power in the state in 2026 due to the welfare measures it provides to the people.
The chief minister expressed gratitude to state party chief Bhabesh Kalita for setting up a committee to review outstanding poll promises so that they can be fulfilled in the coming year.
He said the BJP will contest the Bodoland district council, panchayat and Zillah district elections on its own and urged the party workers to work closely with its allies AGP and UPPL to win the five assembly seats through by-polls.
Sarma also stressed that the panchayat demarcation should be done in a manner that “protects the rights of the indigenous peoples”.
(This article has not been edited by News18 staff and is published by PTI)
