Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has claimed that the recent incidents of crime against women in the state are being done with the ‘big intention of grabbing land and threatening the identity of Assamese people’. He said that there is ‘political patronage’ behind the crimes and also claimed that financial power is slipping out of the hands of Assamese people.
Sarma said in a press conference late Saturday evening, ‘No society is perfect. Crimes against women are a reality. These crimes have reduced in the state in the last three years. But the real intention behind the recent incidents is very big, through crimes like rape, an attempt is being made to target our land and our civilization.’
Referring to the six-year-long agitation against illegal migrants from Bangladesh from 1979, he said, “This phenomenon has been going on in Assam for the last 30-35 years. That is why the Assam agitation took place. We have identified the extremists now, but in 1975 itself the Assamese society was warned that this would happen.” He claimed that a “big conspiracy to grab land” is being hatched through such crimes.
Sarma said, ‘The victim’s family in Dhing told me that they don’t want to live there anymore… People sell their property and move to other places. They are offered Rs 50 lakh for land worth Rs five lakh.’ A 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by three men in Nagaon’s Dhing area on Thursday evening. The incident led to widespread protests. Police arrested one of the accused the next day, but he died after jumping into a pond while allegedly trying to escape from custody.
Sarma claimed there is a “method” in which first, one or two persons enter the village and set up their house, then they start eating meat in their houses and the neighbours get uncomfortable with it and start leaving the area. “This is happening in Barpeta, Mangaldai and other places. Previous chief ministers did not say these things but I have said this. My life may be in danger someday but I am saying this because it is my duty,” the chief minister said.
Without naming any community, he said, “It is all a game of money. The financial power is slipping out of the hands of Assamese people. They are taking advantage of it.” Sarma claimed that criminals get the services of the best lawyers in court because the “community comes forward for them”, but the victim families do not get such good lawyers due to financial constraints and “no one comes forward for us”.
The chief minister said the government has now come up with laws to protect land in some areas and has assigned the responsibility to cabinet minister Pijush Hazarika to hold discussions with locals in Dhing on how the village inhabited by the Scheduled Caste community can be “protected”. “I think if there is no political patronage, such incidents will reduce. But when there is political patronage, social media posts are made in their support, criminals get emboldened and such incidents increase,” Sarma said.
Seeking public support, he said the government will take “strict decisions and measures” to curb these crimes. “If Assamese society is united, there will be no problem. But if it gets divided, it will become weak. The Dhing incident is not just about rape, Assamese people are being terrorised so that they leave their land,” Sarma said.
