“Four districts abolished to administratively weaken minorities and reduce their representation”: Sonai MLA

Yesterday on the eve of the new year Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma held a press conference in Delhi after a cabinet meeting and announced that four present districts of Assam i.e. Biswanath, Hojai, Tamulpur and Bojali would be abolished and their status would be reduced to subdivisions from now on.

The decision of abolishing four districts of Assam did not go well with the Congress party as Assam Congress President Bhupen Borah termed Himanta Biswa Sarma as the “Kim Jong-un of Assam” referring to the infamous dictator of North Korea.

Present MLA of Sonai and member of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) Karim Uddin Barbhuiya also took to Facebook for registering his protest against the abolishment of four districts of Assam. He termed the government’s decision as a ploy to “administratively weaken the minorities” and reduce the representation of minorities by delimitation.

He said that the Assam CM is doing all of it at the behest of RSS and BJP which is an ominous sign for democracy. In a democracy, the number of districts is always increased for proper administration. But surprisingly, four districts with minority influence have been abolished and added to other districts. The mentality of the Chief Minister working against minority interests is clear. We are protesting it as we cannot consider it as a good move by a welfare government in a healthy democracy.

While Karimuddin Barbhuiya and AIUDF claim to be the messiah of Muslims in Assam, at critical moments, they shy away from standing with the minority interests. In fact, AIUDF is deemed as the ‘B’ team of BJP in Assam. Recently, former Minister and current BJP member Gautam Roy, was invited to deliver a speech at an event in Algapur. MLA of the constituency, Nizamuddin Choudhury who won contesting from AIUDF in 2021 was also a speaker and turned up late. Gautam Roy, while delivering his speech saw the MLA approaching the stage and he himself introduced the MLA. During his introduction and several other times during his speech, he urged the people to reach out to the MLA with problems who can take them to the CM.

“He might be AIUDF officially,” said Roy while rubbing his own beard, “But non-officially, he belongs to the lotus,” Roy added. Choudhury, nodded and laughed gesturing acceptance of what Roy alleged. With such arrangements being openly discussed on the stage, AIUDF presenting themselves as messiah of Muslims in itself seems like an opportunistic exploitation.