After ‘flood jihad’ tirade, Assam CM Himanta targets Muslim-owned university for having depictions of ‘Mecca’

PTI, Aug 13, 2024, 10:49 AM IST

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said his government would move the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against a private university of Meghalaya, which, he claimed, demolished hills on its campus leading to large-scale water logging in Guwahati.

He also asserted that former Congress chief minister Tarun Gogoi, who ruled the state between 2001 and 2016, had also identified the water from Jorabat area along the Assam-Meghalaya border for the “artificial flood” in Guwahati.

Sarma’s accusation was against University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM), founded by Mahbubul Hoque who is also its chancellor.

The varsity is located in 9th Mile area in Ri-Bhoi district of neighbouring Meghalaya, near Assam’s Jorabat which serves as an entry point to Guwahati.

“USTM is a danger to Assam. We will go the National Green Tribunal against it,” the chief minister said.

He claimed that USTM has cut the slope of a hill on its campus to build a medical college in such a matter that the water flows to the Assam side.

Sarma asked media persons and state Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah to accompany him to Jorabat when it rains next to see how the water flows down from there.

Sarma had on Friday accused USTM of engaging in a “flood jihad” by demolishing hills on its campus to build new structures which, he claimed was “one of the reasons” for large-scale water logging in the largest city in Assam.

Responding to the allegation, USTM said in a statement on Saturday that its campus accounts for a “minuscule portion” of the water that flows to downstream areas such as Jorabat. It also claimed that constructions were carried out within its campus with requisite permission from the Meghalaya government.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme here, Sarma said, “When I spoke about USTM, the Congress created an uproar. But I have found at least 25 paper clips from 2004 to 2014 in which ex-CM Tarun Gogoi had stated that the main reason for Guwahati’s artificial floods is Jorabat.” Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, son of Tarun Gogi, in an X post, described Sarma’s accusations as “nonsense”.

“Can someone stop the Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa from his jihad of repeated nonsense? It is simply an exaggerated cover up for his failures and scams,” Gaurav Gogoi said in the post on Sunday.

Sarma claimed that Gaurav Gogoi is now denying what his father had said.

“What can I do if the son says that his father was wrong,” Sarma said.

The chief minister added that USTM was not built when Tarun Gogoi was in power, but the water flowing down from Jorabat used to create water logging problem even then.

Alleging that the Congress was creating furore as the owner of USTM is a Muslim, Sarma said, “Had the owner been a Hindu, no ruckus would have been created by them… they shouldn’t indulge in such politics of appeasement.” The chief minister also questioned the opposition party whether it would have defended the university had it been owned by his wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma.

The Congress’ state women wing’s president Mira Borthakur had claimed that the chief minister must have some “personal reason” for targeting USTM.

Shortly after the chief minister talked to the media over the issue on Monday, the Congress said in a post on X: “So Mr @himantabiswa, you agree about the unprecedented corruption your family has been involved in. However hard you try to hide the facts, we will keep exposing you.”

Continuing his tirade against USTM, Sarma said that the university has depictions of Mecca at its gates, but nothing to symbolise Hindu or Christian religions.

“It’s embarrassing to go there; you have to go under ‘Mecca’. What we are saying is that there should be a namghar (community prayer hall, part of Assam’s neo-Vaishnavite tradition) also there. ‘Mecca-Medina’, church. Make all three… They have kept a ‘Mecca’ there. Let them make a namghar, make a church. We will walk under all three, why will we walk under just one,” he said, as quoted by The Indian Express.

He asked, “Why only one religion is being propagated?” Defending his “flood jihad” barb, Sarma said, “What they are doing is ‘baap’ of jihad. Jihad is too small a word for it. Our education system is being destroyed.”