Congress party on Thursday slammed Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for allegedly targeting a journalist’s religious identity in response to his question on flattening hills in the State. The party called Sarma's comments ‘unacceptable and condemnable.’
“A sick mind and a loud mouth are a toxic combination,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote on X, sharing a report about media bodies of Guwahati criticising the chief minister for allegedly targeting a scribe's religious identity.
Sarma had on August 21 targeted a reporter for his Muslim identity after he asked the BJP leader about hills allegedly being cut in Mandakata in the chief minister's Jalukbari Assembly constituency
Sarma was speaking to reporters about his earlier allegations against Mahbubul Hoque, the chancellor of the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya, for causing flash floods in Guwahati because of deforestation to build the institution’s campus.
Sarma had targeted the university, saying that its gates are like Mecca– the holiest site of Islam in Saudi Arabia– and that his BJP government would move the National Green Tribunal(NGT) against the university.
USTM, a private university established in 2008, is promoted by the Education Research and Development Foundation, founded by Mahbubul Hoque, a Muslim of Bengali-origin from Assam’s Karimganj district in the Barak Valley.
The journalist had asked Sarma a question – in the context of USTM. He asked the CM what about hills being cut in his own constituency which, perhaps, annoyed Sarma.
“Why are you equating USTM and Mandakata? Why are you all trying so hard to save USTM?” Sarma responded, asking the reporter his name. The journalist, who works for a local news website, introduced himself as Shah Alam.
“You people, Shah Alam and USTM’s Mahbubul Hoque, the way you all have connected things, will we even survive? I would like to ask Shah Alam if we will even survive in Assam for long?” Sarma responded, eliciting criticism from many journalist' bodies in Assam.
On August 22, the Journalist Association for Assam said in a statement on that Sarma’s behaviour towards Alam was unacceptable. The body appealed to the chief minister not to repeat such comments.
The Gauhati Press Club also expressed concern over the increasing instances of political leaders' ‘disparaging responses’ when journalists ask them questions.
