Electoral Roll Rivision Not Solution To Demographic Change In Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma-OxBig News Network

Amid the turmoil over electoral roll revision in Bihar ahead of assembly polls, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asserted that demographic changes in the state can’t be addressed solely through legal measures like voter list revisions or the NRC.

According to the Indian Express report, Sarma has requested that the NRC, currently pending since 2019, be considered an admissible document for the SIR of electoral rolls once finalised, potentially delaying the SIR process.

Sarma has consistently expressed his doubts regarding the credibility of the NRC exercise. On Tuesday, he reiterated his lack of confidence, stating that neither the NRC nor the revision of the voter list offers an adequate response to “demographic invasion.”

He alleged that regions like Middle and Lower Assam, where there is a higher concentration of Bengali-origin Muslims, have already experienced such demographic shifts. Later, he warned that Upper Assam now faces a similar threat of demographic change.

“We have had NRC here. We don’t know what will happen here (regarding voter list revision), but there is no mechanism (to identify foreigners) in South Salmara-Mankachar, Hailakandi (districts bordering Bangladesh),” Sarma said.

“Our problems need an Assamese kind of solution, an indigenous solution…. Some anganwadi worker inside a village, some gaon panchayat secretary had the responsibility of making the NRC for their particular village. How can they call their own relatives in the village foreigners?… Assam’s problem cannot be compared to that in any other state; it has to be improved as we keep battling them,” he added.