Guwahati, August 28: The United Opposition Forum, Assam on Wednesday lodged a first information report (FIR) against Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at Dispur police station here, accusing him of “trying to promote enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion and race”.
The FIR, addressed to the officer-in-charge of Dispur police station, pointed out a series of incidents where the chief minister was accused of making provocative remarks, particularly targeting the Muslim community.
Referring to the recent rape of a girl at Dhing in Nagaon district, the Opposition parties alleged, “Taking advantage of such a heinous act, the accused person is trying to whip up communal frenzy by targeting a particular community, which had led to attacks on some people belonging to religious minority in Sivasagar by BJP workers and leaders.”
“In one such incident, one Mayur Borgohain, the defeated candidate from Nazira LAC in the 2021 Assembly elections, physically assaulted some labourers. This has been done as a part of conspiracy to create a riot-like situation in the state and the accused (Himanta Biswa Sarma) and other BJP leaders are part of the criminal conspiracy to create such unrest,” the forum alleged.
The Opposition parties further stated that chief minister Sarma “has a history of making provocative statements, targeting a particular community”.
“One year back he had implored people to evict people belonging to a religious community from Guwahati. Continuing his tirade against the religious minority, the accused person had also targeted a journalist named Shah Alom with obvious communal innuendos,” the parties stated in the FIR.
The parties also referred to a media conference on August 23, 2024, where they claimed that Sarma made unfounded claims about members of a particular community deliberately engaging in behaviour intended to force people belonging to other communities to leave the place so that they could encroach these areas.
“Such continuous rants in public have the potential to create disharmony between different communities,” they stated in the FIR.
“If such a person is not arrested and restrained immediately, he can create any riot-like situation in the state for getting political mileage out of it. We therefore request you to register a case against the accused person and his co-conspirators under Sections 61, 196 and 35(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and investigate,” the FIR lodged by the forum read.