New Delhi: Congress MLA Rakibuddin Ahmed on January 27 mounted a sharp attack on the BJP, accusing it of promoting divisive politics by targeting the Miya-Muslim community and raising serious concerns over alleged irregularities in electoral rolls in Assam.
Speaking to the media at Goraimari in the Chamaria constituency, Ahmed said Assam has a long history of diverse ethnic and religious communities living together peacefully. He warned that attempts to stigmatise any community on the basis of religion or language threaten the state’s social harmony.
Rejecting the narrative linking the Bengali language with Bangladeshi identity, Ahmed termed such claims baseless and misleading. He said Bengali is spoken across several Indian states, including Tripura, West Bengal and parts of Assam such as Hojai, and cannot be used to brand people as outsiders. “Language is not a crime,” he said, adding that linguistic identity should not become a political tool for exclusion.
The Congress legislator accused the BJP of deliberately fuelling divisions along caste, religious and linguistic lines for electoral advantage. He maintained that the Congress has never followed such a strategy and instead believes in inclusive politics rooted in constitutional values.
Ahmed also referred to a recent incident at the Boko-Chaygaon Co-District Commissioner’s office, allegedly occurring on the night of January 22, which has triggered controversy over voter list management. He claimed that BJP leaders were involved in the addition and deletion of names from electoral rolls, calling it a grave violation of democratic norms.
Linking the incident to wider concerns about electoral integrity, Ahmed said it reinforced Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s earlier allegations of vote manipulation. He alleged that such actions point to a pattern of malpractice that could erode public confidence in the democratic process.
The MLA said the Congress has approached the Election Commission, seeking a thorough and impartial investigation into the matter. He asserted that the party would continue to pursue the issue and resist any attempts to influence elections through unfair or discriminatory means.
