Guwahati: Arrested earlier this week for his derogatory remarks towards temples and Namghariyas (conventional Assamese prayer home monks) in a speech, Congress legislator Aftab Uddin Mollah was granted bail Thursday. Whereas the Congress has demanded a public apology from Mollah, a regional political celebration has labelled the motion towards him a ‘political gimmick’ by the ruling BJP.
Mollah, a Member of the Legislative Meeting (MLA) from Jaleswar constituency, had made the controversial speech on 4 November at a public occasion in Goalpara, a video clip of which then went viral, prompting an FIR towards him on 7 November.
ThePrint has accessed the video whereby the Congress MLA could be heard focusing on the All India United Democratic Entrance (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal over the latter’s remarks final month on the excessive crime charge amongst Muslims in Assam.
Reacting to Ajmal’s speech, Mollah could be heard saying, “Ajmal’s remarks are not his own, but it is Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who asks him to speak a certain way. Ajmal said Muslims hold the No. 1 position in all crime…If anyone is to be blamed, it is the temple priests and the Namghariyas.”
CM Sarma was fast to react. In a press release to the media Tuesday, Sarma mentioned, “We had to arrest a state Congress MLA because he made a derogatory statement, saying wherever there’s rape or another crime, the temple priests and Satra namghariyas (or namghariyas) are found involved. This is completely false. By making such a statement, the legislator attempted to create communal tension in the state. We will take this case to its logical conclusion.”
The state Congress additionally issued a present trigger discover towards Mollah on 5 November, terming his outburst a “highly obnoxious comment” towards monks and namghariyas.
“Being a secular democratic political party, the Indian National Congress is totally against the works of spreading hatred, religious and communal poisonous comments…The principle and perspective of the Indian National Congress, is never against saints, priests, peers, maulanas and namghariyas, and the Congress has been always revealing due respects to them (sic),” learn the discover issued by Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president, Bhupen Kumar Borah. ThePrint has a replica of the assertion.
The discover, whereas asking the MLA to withdraw his assertion and search public apology, cited that within the final Rajya Sabha elections, Mollah had mentioned that he would “cast his vote in support of a BJP-sponsored candidate as directed by the Chief Minister of Assam.”
On his half, MLA Mollah has not issued an official assertion since his launch. This report can be up to date if and when he does.
Additionally learn: Assam says state staff want govt nod for 2nd marriages, ‘even if permissible under personal law’
‘Why only Mollah’?
The FIR towards Mollah was filed by Guwahati resident Dipak Kumar Das quickly after his remarks went viral. Assam’s Particular DGP Harmeet Singh confirmed to the media Wednesday {that a} criticism was acquired Tuesday towards “a hate speech”, and police discovered the FIR cognizable. ThePrint has a replica of the FIR.
Mollah was remanded to one-day police custody earlier than being produced within the courtroom of the chief judicial Justice of the Peace Thursday. “As per law, he was arrested and produced in court. Anybody found acting against law, the law will take its own course,” Particular DGP Singh had mentioned.
Regional celebration Raijor Dal has questioned the motion towards Mollah, in search of the identical therapy of different related incidents. “What the Congress MLA said is condemnable. But we have also noticed that the Assam chief minister had been making communally provocative statements from time to time. Many FIRs were attempted to be lodged against him by different political leaders, but not one of them got registered. The role of the Assam Police in this regard has been disappointing,” Vasco Da Saikia, working president of Raijor Dal, advised ThePrint Thursday.
“Similarly, AIUDF chief Ajmal has also been making communally sensitive statements. Many organisations in Assam had also lodged FIRs against Ajmal, but no action has ever been initiated,” he added.
“The way it has acted against Mollah, in the same spirit, Assam Police should act against the CM and Ajmal,” Saikia mentioned.
Raijor Dal youth wing chief Nirmal Payeng was quoted by the native media Thursday as saying that the incident is a “political gimmick ahead of 2024 elections”.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
Additionally learn: EC sends notices to Sarma & Priyanka for ‘prima facie’ ballot code violations, seeks reply by 30 Oct