Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday targeted a reporter for his Muslim identity after he asked the Bharatiya Janata Party leader about hills allegedly being cut in Mandakata in the politician’s Jalukbari Assembly constituency.
Sarma was speaking to reporters about his allegations from earlier this month that Mahbubul Hoque, the chancellor of the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya, was responsible for flash floods in Guwahati because of deforestation and hill-cutting carried out to build the institution’s campus.
Hoque, a Bengali Muslim from Assam, owns the Education Research and Development Foundation, which runs the university. Several experts and Guwahati residents have said that there is no basis for the BJP leader’s claim that the university was behind the floods in Guwahati.
It was in this context that the journalist on Wednesday asked Sarma about hills being cut in his constituency. Responding to the query, the chief minister asked: “Why are you equating USTM [University of Science and Technology Meghalaya] and Mandakata? Why are you all trying so hard to save USTM?”
Sarma then asked the reporter his name.
The journalist, who works at a local news website, introduced himself as Shah Alam.
To this, Sarma said: “You people Shah Alam and USTM’s Mahbubul Hoque, the way you all have connected things, will we even survive? I would like to ask Shah Alam if we will even survive in Assam for long?”
The Journalist Association For Assam said in a statement on Thursday that Sarma’s behaviour towards Alam was unacceptable. The press body appealed to the chief minister not to repeat such comments.
The Gauhati Press Club also expressed concern over increasing instances of “disparaging responses” by political leaders when journalists ask them questions.
“In the latest case, the honorable chief minister pulled the religious identity of a journalist into context without any apparent relevance during a press meet on August 21,” it said in a statement on Thursday. “The Gauhati Press Club expresses deep concern at such an incident.”
The press body urged political leaders to ensure that such instances are not repeated and show dignity to their position as well as the role of the media.
During the press meet on Wednesday, Sarma also said that the state government was discussing the possibility of not taking students who graduate from the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya for posts advertised by the Assam government, reported The Indian Express.
“Our students from Guwahati and Dibrugarh University are suffering because of this,” Sarma told reporters according to The Indian Express. “That’s why I have asked the legal department to examine this – that if students from USTM want a job in Assam, they will have to give another exam.”
He added: “Not just USTM but from West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, all outside universities. But my anger against USTM is a little more. Because they are throwing water at us.”
Also read: Why residents of Assam capital are not buying the chief minister’s claim of ‘flood jihad’