In a striking address, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma raised alarms about the looming risk of Assam merging with Bangladesh, should the population of Bangladeshi descent surpass the 50% mark. He emphasized the importance of preserving Assamese heritage amidst worrying demographic changes and what he sees as appeasement policies.

Guwahati: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday warned of a possible attempt to make Assam a part of Bangladesh, if people of Bangladeshi origin breached the 50%-population mark in the state.“While people of Bangladeshi origin have crossed 40% and are still increasing, a reality which we can see with our eyes today.

If their population crosses 50%, then in such a situation, there might be an attempt to make Assam a part of Bangladesh,” Himanta said at the BJP’s state executive meeting at Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra.Drawing inference from the public lynching of Dipu Das in Bangladesh, Sarma said, “When Dipu Das can be burnt alive in Bangladesh, the Assamese people can well imagine what the situation will be after 20 years.”“If there is a war between India and Bangladesh, who will these settlers support? Where does their loyalty lie?” Sarma asked.Alleging decades of “appeasement politics” by Congress having fostered a “new civilisation”, who were now numbering 1.5 crore in the state, Sarma termed the upcoming assembly elections as a ‘civilisational battle’ to protect ‘Swadesh’ (nation) and ‘Swajati’ (community), along with the identity, land and culture of the Assamese people.

With BJP’s working president Nitin Nabin in attendance, Sarma said the party represented the “last light of hope” to ensure Assam was not “pushed into an abyss of darkness by Bangladesh infiltrators.”“This is not merely political, it is civilisational,” Sarma said, adding that such demographic shifts endangered the Assamese identity, pointing to incidents in Dhubri and lower Assam, and singling out instances of Hindu girls falling victims to “Love Jihad.”Citing the census data, Sarma said the indigenous population had already dipped to 60% and could fall further, adding that Muslims comprised 34% of the state’s population in 2011, with Bangladeshi-origin Muslims making up 31% while indigenous Muslims accounted for only 3%. “By 2027, this is number expected to rise to around 40%, which raises serious concerns about the changing demographic landscape of our state,” the CM said.“During my lifetime, I have seen the population of the infiltrators rise from 21% to nearly 40% and my children will find during their lifetime that the population of the Assamese community has come down to 30%,” he added.Rejecting the narrative of Assam as the land of ‘Sankar-Azan,’ (Vaishnav saint Sankardeva and Sufi saint Azan Fakir), Sarma said it was the land of ‘Sankar-Madhav’ (referring to Sankardeva’s illustrious disciple Madhavdeva).“Assam was, is, and will always remain the land of Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardev & Mahapurush Madhabdev. We will never allow misleading narratives, false equivalences or comparisons of our Mahapurush with Ajan Fakir to weaken our cultural identity and civilisational ethos,” he said.Invoking the Ahom general Lachit Borphukan, the CM said, “Lachit defeated the Mughals, even when sick. We, too, will defeat the forces threatening our identity, land and culture.”“We have PM Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah with us. We will fight relentlessly to protect our ‘jati, mati and bheti’(identity, land and homeland) — and we will win,” Sarma added.