Writing Bengali in census document will reveal number of foreigners in Assam: Himanta

way2barak July 11: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said people who seek to replace Assamese with Bengali in the electoral rolls would help the government get an idea about the number of “foreigners” in the State.

He warned a section not to “blackmail” the government with language after a minority student leader said Bengal-origin Muslims would list Bengali, and not Assamese, as their mother tongue in public documents.

“Nobody is affected by the threats ahead of every Census about listing this or that language. They (some elements) were made to believe that if more people do not speak Assamese, the language will become extinct. But the Assamese language will remain where it is,” the Chief Minister said on Thursday.

Mainuddin Ali, a leader of the All BTC Minority Students’ Union, had made the controversial remarks during a protest on July 9 against the ongoing eviction drives in parts of western Assam. BTC expands to the Bodoland Territorial Council.

Mr Ali said that Assamese will no longer be the “language of the majority in Assam” if the Bengal-origin Muslims do not list Assamese as their mother tongue during the Census exercise.

“We, the Bengal-origin Muslims, clearly state that we will not write Assamese as our mother tongue in this Census. We will remove the Assamese language. The Assamese language as well as the Assamese community will become a minority,” he said.