Opposition call Assam cabinet's decision to provide Minority certificates as 'divide and rule policy'

Terming the Assam government's decision to provide Minority certificates to the people of six religious Minority communities of the state as 'divide and rule policy', the Opposition parties on Monday said that the people will not be benefited from this policy.

All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) MLA and party General Secretary Aminul Islam toldthat the Assam government is not above the Constitution of India.

"The Constitution of India has already given minority status to the communities. If you want to give benefits to people of these religions, then you can give benefits. But separate identification move of the state government is not necessary. Earlier the BJP-led Assam government tried to divide the society in the name of religion, and now they are trying to divide into castes, sub-castes," Aminul Islam said.

The Assam cabinet on Sunday decided to provide Minority certificates to six religious Minority communities of the state - Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis.

Recently, a panel set up by the Assam government has recommended the state government that, a notification be passed and recognize the Assamese Muslims as an Indigenous Assamese speaking community of the state.

The panel also recommended that a separate Directorate/Authority be set up for Assamese Muslims so that the Directorate could provide the necessary documentation to the people of the Assamese Muslim community to reflect their distinct identity and it may be in the form of an identity card or a certificate.

Consequent to the formation of sub-committees for the overall development of the indigenous Assamese Muslim community in Assam, the seven sub-committees submitted their reports containing their recommendations to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at a programme held at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati on April 21.

Aminul Islam further said that, if the Indigenous Muslims are seeking benefits, then the government should provide the benefits to them.

"We are not against it. But the government is trying to divide the Muslim community separately which is the way of British's divide and rule policy and that policy has been adopted by the BJP," he said.

On the other hand, another AIUDF MLA Ashraful Hussain said that the Minority communities will not be benefited from the government's this policy.

"I think it will become a worthless exercise," Hussain said.

Debabrata Saikia, Congress MLA and opposition leader said that he doesn't find any reason why the Assam government is now proposing to issue separate identity cards to the Minorities of the state.

"The Constitution of India has given minority status to these six communities. So this is not a necessary step. Maybe a ploy by the ruling party to divide the Assamese society further into majority and minority," Saikia added.

( With inputs from ANI )

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