On 6th March, Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, issued a warning to Badruddin Ajmal, the president of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), against the practice of banned ‘magical healing’ and threatened to arrest him if he breached the state law. Notably, the non-scientific healing methods in the northeastern state were outlawed in February when the assembly enacted the Assam Healing (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill of 2024.
“Badruddin Ajmal practices magical healing, and he tried his tricks during his public meetings also. But the Assam assembly has passed a Bill to ban magical healing in the state. Anybody who practices this will be put behind bars,” the chief minister declared while starting several development initiatives in the Lakhimpur district of the state.
The chief minister added that the Lok Sabha MP might not listen to him but must adhere to the assembly that adopted the law. “If he will do healing practices, he will be arrested. What I will say, will happen. I am not speaking about myself, I am speaking about the assembly. You don’t listen to Himanta Biswa Sarma’s words, but you will have to listen to what the assembly is saying. The assembly has stopped the healing practices.”
Legislators from the AIUDF have been emphasizing that their party’s supremo is a spiritual guide as well and hence people willingly seek out his ‘healing.’ Muslims regularly request Badruddin Ajmal to blow into their water bottles in the hopes that the fluid will become medicinal.
The Assam government recently implemented the bill in the assembly’s recent budget session that forbids ‘magical healing’ performed under the guise of treatment and prescribes severe penalties for those who engage in such acts. The objective is to criminalize and prevent the application of magical healing methods to treat ailments like autism, physical deformities, blindness, deafness, and speechlessness.
The legislation aims to safeguard human health against “evil and sinister practices thriving on ignorance and ill-health of people” by educating the public about healthy, scientifically based knowledge. The purpose of the Bill is to abolish non-scientific therapeutic methods that have “ulterior motives for exploiting the innocent people and thereby destroying the fibre of public health of the society.”
Crimes committed in accordance with the bill’s provisions would be punishable by law and not subject to bail. A person could face a penalty of up to three years in jail, a fine of Rs fifty-thousand, or both for an initial offence. However, for a second time, they might receive a penalty of up to five years in prison, Rs one lakh in fine, or both.
