A war of words has erupted between Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Waisi over the BJP leader’s comments against the Miao Muslim community. Track App-Taxi service updates strike
File photo of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Waisi. (PTI)YC replied with a ‘ ₹2’ Jibe and called Sarma a beggar. “(Sarma) said, ‘If an auto driver is a Muslim, pay him less than the actual fare; if the fare is ₹5, then give it to him ₹4’. Himanta Biswa Sharma, I am giving you these two rupees, will you take it? I know you are a beggar of two rupees… shall I transfer it to your account?” said YC at a public meeting in Nizamabad on Friday.
YC also said that the constitution gave equal rights to all, as he accused Sarma of discrimination against the Muslim community.
“There should be no discrimination whether you are the prime minister or the chief minister. But he said, ‘We will do it with Mia, go to Bangladesh and vote’. What do you want to do?” YC said.
Controversy over Assam Chief Minister’s commentsWaisi’s rebuke came in response to Sarma’s continued attacks on illegal immigration and his common use of the term Mia Musalman for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam.
Sarma has defended his comments in the past, saying he did not coin the term “Miya Muslim” and that it was common among communities who migrated from Bangladesh to refer to themselves.
The political slugfest comes ahead of the Assam assembly elections that are expected in the next few months. As the power struggle there intensified, Sarma renewed his previous and renewed drive to drive out ‘illegal Bangladeshi immigrants’. He said last week that he had launched a ‘war’ to drive them out of the state.
“MIA means Bangladeshi infiltrators, and we have decided to go as far as possible to send each and every one of them back from Assam. It is a war and a matter of life and death for us,” Sarma told a public rally last week.
On 27 January, he urged the people of Assam to “pursue” members of the Miao community and continue to “harass” them. “If we don’t do this, the intruders will think that the Assamese people are weak. We are doing this for our existence,” he said.

