Activist and former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed’s comment that “the world is so big that Bangladeshis can also be here (in Assam)” has triggered a firestorm and drawn criticism from across the state’s political spectrum.
Hameed was in Assam as part of a delegation that also included former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, activist Harsh Mander and former Rajya Sabha member Jawhar Sircar. On Saturday, members of the delegation visited a site in Goalpara, where the Assam government recently conducted an eviction, as well as the site of a proposed satellite township in Borduar, where there have been apprehensions about land acquisition.
On Sunday evening, they participated in a public meeting on ‘The state of the nation with special reference to Assam’, held in Guwahati by the Axom Nagarik Sanmilan and chaired by Independent Rajya Sabha MP from Assam Ajit Kumar Bhuyan.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Hameed said, “The condition of Assam is such that you can say that ‘Mussalmano pe qayamat doob rahi hai’ (doomsday is descending on Muslims). Muslims are being targeted, and those of us who live in Delhi, our hearts are, at this time, with the Muslims and their condition here.”
“What is the crime in being Bangladeshi? Bangladeshis are also people. The world is so big that Bangladeshis can also be here. They are not depriving anyone of their rights. To say that they are depriving these people of their rights, and those people of their rights. It’s a very troublesome, extremely mischievous, and very detrimental to humanity… They are humans. Allah has made this earth for humans,” she said.
“I live in Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi; there, too, we are having these evictions. What is happening in Goalpara is also happening in Jamia. It is qayamat on Muslims. We are for Hindus, we are for Christians, we are for Sikhs, and we are for Muslims as well,” she said.
Sharp reactions
The state’s leaders, including Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, reacted sharply, with the CM accusing her of “legitimising illegal infiltrators.” Cabinet minister Pijush Hazarika referred to her as a “venomous Miya sympathiser.”
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“People like Syeda Hameed, a close confidant of the Gandhi family, legitimise illegal infiltrators as they seek to realise Jinnah’s dream of making Assam a part of Pakistan. Today, Assamese identity is on the brink of extinction because of the tacit support of people like her. But we are the sons and daughters of Lachit Barphukan. We will fight till the last drop of our blood to save our State and our identity. Let me make it very clear, Bangladeshis are not welcome in Assam; it is not their land. Anyone sympathising with them may accommodate them in their own backyards. Assam is not up for grabs by illegal infiltrators, not now, not ever,” Sarma wrote on X.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju weighed in too, accusing her of “misleading in the name of humanity.” “It’s not about religion, but our land. If Assam becomes demographically vulnerable, the remaining states of North East are in physical danger for the Indian Union,” he wrote.
Not just the BJP, Hameed’s statements have also drawn criticism from other parties in Assam, which shares a long border with Bangladesh and where the question of “illegal immigration” from the neighbouring country has long been a contentious issue.
All Assam Students’ Union’s president Utpal Sarma referred to her statements as “anti-Assam and anti-national.”
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Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly Debabrata Saikia condemned her, but also sought to turn the controversy on its head by alleging that the BJP’s push of the Citizenship Amendment Act – which enables the fast-tracking of the citizenship process for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christans from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India before December 31, 2014 – has enabled the statement.
“We want the Assam Accord to be implemented and that all foreigners, regardless of religion, who entered Assam after March 24, 1971, be arrested and deported… If Prime Minister Narendra Modi had acted on his 2014 promise at Judge Field in Guwahati to deport Bangladeshis, Assam would not have been in this situation today,” he said.
Sivasagar MLA and Raijor Dal leader Akhil Gogoi too invoked the CAA while condemning both Hameed and the BJP.
“This is a very sensitive time for Assam. At this time, to say such insensible things that are against the interest of Assam does not do anything but help the BJP. That’s why I want to state very clearly that the Assamese people do not accept any kind of foreigners, be it Hindu or Muslim… I request people not to make such statements in Assam. I also request them to learn and understand Assam’s history, political history, and the people’s struggles,” he said.
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The organisers of the public meeting after which she made the comments also distanced themselves, calling it her “personal opinion.”
“Our view is clear on the issue of foreign nationals. The Assam Accord is a cornerstone for us in this regard. We want all foreigners who came after March 25, 1971, irrespective of Hindu-Muslim, to be expelled from Assam through a legal process… The Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government, which wants to settle Hindu Bangladeshis through the CAA, has no moral right to comment on foreign nationals,” read a statement by Ajit Bhuyan and Paresh Malakar on behalf of the Axom Nagarik Sanmilan.
