Dainik Bhaskar journalist Rajesh Sahu (Archive link) claimed in his tweet that Assam Chief Minister has given a statement saying, “I don’t want Muslim votes. The BJP will not campaign in their area.” His tweet in Hindi further translates to, “These words belong to Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma. Taking the oath of the constitution, this person sitting on the post of CM has shown the mirror to the whole system. PM’s Sabka Saath Sabka Vishwas slogan was also sidelined.”
Moreover, he added, “He was in Congress five years ago. Wanted to meet Rahul. Rahul met. Throughout the long conversation, Rahul ji was paying more attention to his dog. After that incident, Himanta left the Congress. Rahul Gandhi at least has the test of a communal person. Rest, you can guess how much justice the minorities would have got in the state of this Chief Minister.”
The pro-AAP news channel News 24 (Archive link) cited Himanta Biswa and wrote, “I don’t want the votes of the Muslims. The BJP will not campaign in their area.”
Besides, the founder and editor of The Report Hindi, Wasim Akram Tyagi (Archive link), wrote, “The Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa said in an interview, “I don’t want Muslim votes, BJP will not campaign in their area.” Hope Narendra Modi will definitely teach the lesson of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” to this leader.”
Apart from that, Rahul Gandhi supporter, Manjeet Singh Ghoshi (Archive link), citing Himanta Biswa wrote, “Does Modi and any person in the Government of India still have guts to ask for his resignation?”
The same claim was also made by a parody account Rofl Akhilesh (Archive link) and Sujeet Swami (Archive link), a journalist according to his Twitter bio, that Himanta Biswa has said that he does not want Muslims to vote for him and BJP will not campaign in their area.
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Fact Check
The Only Fact ran a Google keyword search and discovered that the comment was made by Himanta Biswa in an interview with NDTV. The viral statement, however, was extracted selectively from his interview.
We discovered the 30-minute-41-second (Archive link) interview video on NDTV’s YouTube page. In an exclusive interview with NDTV’s Executive Director Sanjay Pugalia, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma discussed the North East’s development over the last nine years, why the people of the region do not blame the Centre for the Manipur crisis, and why he does not believe in Muslim voter appeasement.
In the video from 15 minutes and 20 seconds, Biswa says, “Today in Assam, Hindus and Muslims are living peacefully. During Congress rule, owing to bad policies, every 4 or 5 years, the state witnessed communal conflict. He also emphasizes the need to end Madrasa education, noting that the state will soon open seven colleges exclusively for Muslim females.” The interviewer asked him whether this could be interpreted as a Muslim vote bank for the BJP.
In response to the interviewer, he states, “For the time being, we do not have Muslim votes. I have stated unequivocally that we don’t need the votes of Muslims, particularly Bengali Muslims, at this time. Vote bank politics is the fundamental source of all issues. Congress needed votes, so they didn’t create roads, schools, colleges, or housing. They didn’t provide electricity to the state, and they didn’t let the Prime Minister’s schemes be implemented in the state.”
“Now, for the next ten years, development in Muslim areas must be done,” he continues. It must be assured that Muslim kids do not attend madrassas and instead attend medical college. A Muslim female should attend school and finish her education. All of this work should have been done 10–15 years ago. I will then go and ask for votes. In the 2016 and 2019 elections, I decided not to campaign in their area.”
Consequently, the claim that Himanta Biswa’s actions are contradictory to the BJP’s principle of “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas” and that his stands are against the interests of Muslims is misleading. His statement was extracted from its original context to create a misleading narrative.
| Claim | Himanta Biswa said he does not want votes of Muslims and BJP will not campaign in their area |
| Claimed by | Rajesh Sahu, New 24, Wasim Akram Tyagi, Manjeet Singh Ghoshi, Rofl Akhilesh and Sujeet Swami |
| Fact Check | Misleading |
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