Nagpur: Assam chief minister Hemant Biswa Sarma, who is in the spotlight for his statement that immigrant Muslims of the north-eastern state should adopt family planning, said indigenous Muslims of Assam have always been better off as compared to migrants.
The statement was particularly targeted at the immigrants, or the Bengali Muslims, who have large families to their own detriment.
The family size of the indigenous Muslims is smaller like other Assamese, he said.
Sarma was in the city for a visit at the RSS headquarters, where he held an over hour-long meeting with RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat before paying a visit to the Hedgewar Smruti Mandir at Reshimbagh.
He clarified that no political issue was discussed, neither his recent statement.
“As chief minister, it would not have been right for me to target Muslims in general.
This has nothing to do with politics.
The BJP as a party has been taking up the issue of increasing Muslim population on the state’s demographic profile on different forums.
What is said is purely related to poverty alleviation of the immigrant Muslims,” he said.
Assam has indigenous Muslims as well as immigrants who have come from unified Bengal and also Bangladesh in the 20th century.
They are culturally different from the Assamese Muslims.
The immigrants have huge families.
The average number of children among the immigrants ranges from 6 to 12.
Some have as many as 20.
This thinly divides their land and income, which is the reason they have been asked to have a decent family size, Sarma said.
As against that, the indigenous Muslims don’t have such issues.
They have two to three children.
Smaller families ensure better living standards for the Assamese Muslims, he said.
Sarma said both Muslim communities are culturally different and there is rarely any mixing between the two.
The state has 1.35 crore Muslims, out of which around 13 lakh may be indigenous, he said.
Sarma said he was at the RSS headquarters with his family before he had become the chief minister.
This was the first visit after assuming charge as CM.