In new Assam Assembly, BJP refrain: ‘Congress represents one community’; Opposition calls it divisive talk

The Assam Assembly elections threw up a House that has never been as starkly disparate along communal lines as now. The effect is showing – in debates, in the language used by the ruling BJP, and in the choices made by the Opposition Congress.

Of the 126 seats in the Assembly, the NDA holds 102, including the BJP’s 82, and 10 each of its allies AGP and BPF (Bodoland People’s Front). All the seats NDA MLAs won were where ethnic Assamese, Hindu and tribal voters form the bulk of the population. The Opposition holds only 24 seats – 19 won by the Congress, 2 by the Raijor Dal, 2 by the AIUDF and 1 by the Trinamool Congress. Only two of them are Hindu MLAs, Joy Prakash Das of the Congress and Akhil Gogoi of the Raijor. The rest are Muslim leaders, who won from seats where minority voters are dominant.

True to his word, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who often targets Bengali-origin Muslims in Assam, brought the Bill to introduce the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the very first Session of the new Assembly. Any pushback from the Opposition, which does not have the numbers to even try stalling the Bill, was projected by the BJP and Sarma as proof of where the Opposition’s loyalties lay.

When it was his turn to speak on the Bill at the tail end of a five-hour debate in which over 30 MLAs participated, the CM said the Opposition was “not representative” of popular opinion.

“The composition of the Assembly itself proves that the Congress does not represent Assam in the totality of its communities and religions today. It only represents a particular religious community… And if you look at their opposition to the UCC, you will see that they have only opposed it from the lens of a particular community. They have not opposed it from the perspective of Hindu people, Christian people or tribal people.”

Sarma added: “Today, we are seeing in the Assembly a secular party like the Congress, which 150 years ago spoke about equal rights and duties, representing a particular religious community only. They spoke about the Quran and Shariat but not once did the Bhagwad Gita, Ramayan and Mahabharat leave their mouths.”

Multiple Opposition MLAs argued during the debate that existing laws make the UCC redundant. “There are already strong laws in the country against child marriage and for women’s rights. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act is in place across the country and the Assam government itself has arrested thousands of people on the basis of this… triple talaq has been made a punishable offence. For polygamy, the Assam Assembly passed an Act last year… When these laws are in place, what can be the political motive of bringing in a UCC?” said Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Wazed Ali Choudhury.

The Opposition also demanded public consultation, with leaders of different religions and communities, before introducing the UCC, and raised concerns about infringement of personal liberty with the regulations on live-in relationship. Some MLAs pointed to Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution, and said the freedom of religion and to manage religious affairs protected the practice of personal law.

Choudhury said: “The attempt to impose one set of rules in a multi-religious and multicultural society like ours goes against the core values of the Constitution… Personal laws haven’t come up overnight, they have been developed and established over ages.”

The Trinamool Congress’s Sherman Ali Ahmed opposed certain sections of the UCC Bill as “violating the Quran”, adding: “The Quran should not be violated, that is guaranteed under Articles 25 and 26. A section violates the Quran by dictating whom I marry…” Ahmed also opposed the stipulations regarding divorce.

The Congress’s choice of Choudhury as CLP chief reflects strategic balancing by the party too given the House composition. For Deputy CLP, the party picked its sole Hindu MLA, Joy Prakash Das.

With all its biggest leaders having lost in the Assembly elections, including Congress Assam president Gaurav Gogoi and Leader of the Opposition Debebrata Saikia, Choudhury is the party’s senior-most state legislator now. A five-time MLA, he currently represents the Birsing Jarua constituency.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Das said Sarma’s statements about the Opposition in the Assembly were “an attempt to build on a narrative”.

“It is true that they (the NDA) got 102 MLAs, and we got 19. But if an MLA wins, it does not mean that all sections of the people in that seat are with him. There are seats in Upper Assam, like Duliajan and Bihpuria, where we lost by small margins… Now Sarma is trying to divide Assam in the Assembly itself. His work is to divide people,” Das said.

Another Congress leader admitted the statistics in the Assembly were “not favourable” for the party. “A more robust debate on something as important as the UCC might have offset it.”