Aminul Islam, an MLA from the Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF in Assam, has claimed that the Congress party will kill at least 5000 Muslims if comes back to power in the state. The legislator representing Dhing assembly constituency claimed that the party will kill Muslims to bring back the Hindu vote bank.
Addressing a public rally in Barpeta district, the MLA said, ‘The Congress party is out of power for 2 terms. If they come back to power, they will kill at least 5,000 Muslims to bring back the Hindu vote bank.’ He further claimed that when the Congress party came back to power earlier after being out of power for 5 years, they had killed 1000 Muslims.
He claimed that Congress kills Muslims to present itself as an anti-Muslim party so that the nationalist camps embrace it. He then listed several massacres in the country in the past, claiming that all of them were done by the Congress party.
‘1979, 1983, 1993, 2002, 2008, 2014, in every term they were in power, they killed hundreds of Muslims in massacres,’ Aminul Islam claimed in the meeting attended by party chief Badruddin Ajmal and other leaders in the Muslim-dominated area of Kayakuchi. He said that the history of the last 40 years clearly shows that Congress keeps killing Muslims to establish itself as an anti-Muslim, pro-Nationalist party.
The AIUDF then said that Muslims are not safe in Congress rule. He made the comments at a workshop of party workers from the Barpeta and Dhubri parliamentary constituencies held at Kayakuchi in the Barpeta district. Apart from Dhing MLA Aminl Islam, party chief Badruddin Ajmal, Mankachar MLA Aminul Islam (junior), Jania MLA Hafiz Rafiqul Islam, Dhubri MLA Najrul Haque, Gauripur MLA Nijanur Rahman, Senga MLA Ashraful Husain, Dalgaon MLA Majibur Rahman, Bilasiara (east) MLA Samsul Huda and other senior leaders of the party attended the event.
Congress party has sharply reacted to the comments, saying that Aminul Islam is an agent of BJP-RSS, and is an enemy of Muslims. Responding to the allegations, Congress leader Debabrata Saikia gave a clarification saying that during the 1983 Nelie massacre, there was president’s rule in Assam and Congress was not in power in the state. He alleged that BJP is responsible for massacres of Muslims, not Congress.
He added that while senior Aminul Islam is saying this, junior Aminul Islam, another MLA of AIUDF with the same, is advocating for an alliance with Congress. He was referring to a viral audio claiming to be of a phone call by Mankachar MLA Aminul Islam, where he was heard telling an AIUDF worker to send emails to Rahul Gandhi from various places in various languages explaining how not having a Congress-AIUDF alliance will benefit BJP. However, the AIUDF MLA has denied that he made the phone call, claiming the audio was made by someone mimicking his voice.
It is notable that although AIUDF has been trying to enter the opposition alliance, it was not included in the recently announced I.N.D.I.A. group. Reportedly, while the Congress high command had raised the possibility of an alliance with the party in Assam, Pradesh Congress leaders rejected any such move. When both parties had understandings in the past, it was seen that while Congress votes get transferred to AIUDF, AIUDF votes do not shift to Congress.
However, AIUDF maintains that it still supports the I.N.D.I.A. alliance, and has kept the hope of formal inclusion in the alliance in future.
