New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma is the most poisonous man in this political discourse, said prominent historian S Irfan Habib. He also said that when the so-called secular and progressive parties failed to uplift the Muslim community during their respective tenure, then we should not expect anything from the current dispensation.
Speaking at the launch of 'Marginalisation of Muslims in Ten Minority Concentration districts', which is a development audit report by the SPECT foundation, Habib said that "a discourse or a narrative is being built against Muslims that their population is on a constant rise and that it poses a national threat. But are the Muslims not the citizens of this country and why their alleged population rise is being viewed through this national security lens? This entire concept is blatantly politically motivated."
"When you're selectively deleting the portions of history as per your political idealogue, then you are also eliminating the dots of that connected history. So you've now deleted portions of Mughal court system. Now how will you write about Maharana Pratap, Haldi Ghat battle? History cannot be used as a political tool", he pointed out.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi 'morally corrupt', Kejriwal 'coward': Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma
Talking to this reporter during a causal conversation, Irfan Habib when being asked to comment on the recent omissions made by the NCERT said, "The BJP government whether it was the late AB Vajpayee's tenure or the present under PM Modi, they've been more serious about the past, particularly the medieval past. So, while the Vajpayee government tried to omit some portions, they did not achieve success, but the current regime under PM Modi has been more aggressive on this and they've achieved their success."
The report prepared by the SPECT Foundation assesses socio-economic parameters in 10 districts in four border states with a sizeable population of Muslims, including Bihar (Araria, Purnea, Kishanganj, Kaithar), Assam (Dhubri, Kokrajhar), Uttar Pradesh (Shravasti, Balarampur) and West Bengal (Malda, Murshidabad). The report highlights the marginalization of Muslims in these selected districts, be it in the domain of health, education and all-round development.
"These losers are unable to digest that BJP welcomed Himanta Biswa Sharma with so much respect despite coming from Congress. Today he is such a big leader and is very close to us ideologically and we all know the ideologue of people like Irfan Habib and others," said Sudesh Verma of BJP.
