Morigaon (Assam): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said his party was against men from the Muslim community having multiple wives. Launching a scathing attack on All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief and Lok Sabha MP Badruddin Ajmal, Sarma said women can give birth to "20-25 children" as per the AIUDF chief's reported advice, but Ajmal has to bear all their future expenses on food, clothes and education.
"There cannot be any right to a man living in independent India to marry three-four women without divorcing the previous spouse. We want to change such a system. We have to work to render justice to Muslim women," the Chief Minister said at an official function here. "We want 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas'. If there are doctors from Assamese Hindu families, there should be doctors from Muslim families as well. Many MLAs don't give such advice because they need the votes of 'Pomuwa' Muslims," Sarma said.
Bengali-speaking Muslims originating from East Bengal or present-day Bangladesh are colloquially called 'Pomuwa Muslims' in Assam. Speaking about Ajmal's controversial comments on women, the Chief Minister said, "In Assam, we have some leaders like Badruddin Ajmal. They say women must give birth to children as soon as possible because that is a fertile land." A woman's childbirth process cannot be compared with a field, he added.
"I have repeatedly said that our women can give birth to 20-25 children, but Ajmal has to bear the expenses of their food, clothes and education. Then, we don't have any problem," Sarma said. If the perfume baron-turned-Lok Sabha MP does not give the expenses of the children, then nobody has the right to lecture on childbirth, he added.
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Sarma further said that a family should give birth to only those many children whom they can provide food, clothes and education to make them better human beings. "Our government's policy is clear. We work for the indigenous people, but we want progress for all. We don't want the students of Muslims, especially the 'Pomuwa' Muslims, to study in Madrassas and become 'Jonab' and 'Imam'," he added.
The BJP-led government wants all Muslim children to get admitted to general schools and colleges to become doctors and engineers. Ajmal, in an interview with a media house on December 2, had commented on women and Hindu men as well as Sarma, purportedly as a response to the Chief Minister's remarks on 'Love Jihad'.
The Dhubri MP, who is revered as a 'Maulana', reportedly advised Hindus to marry young to produce more children like Muslims. As the comments led to a backlash, the MP apologised the next day and said he was ashamed of the controversy it stoked. He, however, maintained that his comments were twisted and he had not targeted any community.
Referring to the arrest of some terror elements with links to a madrassa in the district, the Chief Minister said, "I am very concerned about Al-Qaeda links to a madrassa in Morigaon. We can't transform the district into a base for Al-Qaeda. "We all will have to stay away from communalism and religious fundamentalism for the progress of Morigaon district," he said.
