The Assam assembly will on Thursday take up for discussion a bill introduced in the House two days earlier to make registration of Muslim marriages and divorces compulsory even as the Opposition opposed the move saying a 1935 law governing these matters remained in force and has to be repealed first for the new legislation.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. (PTI)
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday asked Muslim lawmakers to support the Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriage and Divorce Bill and future legislation on banning child marriages. “Issues between Hindus and Muslims would not get resolved by suppressing each other or not allowing the other to speak. It will only get sorted through reconciliation and legislators from both communities must work towards that.”
The new bill provides for government-appointed officials to register all Muslim marriages and divorces and to curb child marriages. It is expected to be passed easily as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition has the required numbers.
The new legislation will replace the Assam Muslim Marriages and Divorce Registration Act, 1935, which allows registration of marriages and divorces through government-authorised Qazis or Islamic legal experts but is not mandatory. It allowed the registration of marriages and divorces of minors on the applications of their guardians. On August 22, the government tabled a bill to abolish the 1935 law to pave the way for the new legislation.
The Opposition All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) opposed the tabling of the new legislation calling it illegal as the 1935 legislation was still in force and needed to be repealed first. “Discussion on the bill to abolish the 1935 law is to be discussed in the assembly. Even before that happened, the state government tabled the new legislation, which is not proper and that is why we opposed it,” said AIUDF lawmaker Aminul Islam.
On the day the new bill was tabled, the Opposition parties on Tuesday accused Sarma of making communal and unconstitutional statements and urged President Droupadi Murmu and Assam governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya to remove him.
The United Opposition Forum Assam, comprising 18 national and regional parties including Congress, Raijor Dal, and Assam Jatiya Parishad, planned to lodge a case against Sarma in Guwahati.
Assam Jatiya Parishad chief Lurinjyoti Gogoi called Sarma belligerent and said Assam was unsafe in his hands. “He has made the future of the state’s younger generations uncertain with his utterances and is trying to create disturbances among Hindus and Muslims.”
In the assembly, Sarma on Tuesday reiterated that the demographic change in the state due to an increase in the Muslim population and the decrease in Hindus could lead to disaster. He called it the biggest issue in Assam and urged a debate on it. “The demography in lower Assam districts is changing at such a fast pace that it seems headed for an unprecedented human disaster. There are several factors behind this. One is the high rate of birth among Muslims, and another is fleeing of Hindus from areas in lower and central Assam while there has been no such thing recorded among Muslims,” Sarma said.
As per the 2011 census, Assam had a population of 31.2 million. Hindus comprised a little over 19 million (61.47%), Muslims 10.6 million (34.22%), Christians 1.1 million, Sikhs around 20,000, Buddhists 54,000, Jains 25,000.
Sarma said Assam’s Muslim population was 22% in 1947. “It was 24.68% in 1951 and 30.9 in 2001. The highest increase [in the Muslim population] was recorded between 2001 and 2011. There is a demographic shift in all districts.”
Sarma said there has been a rise in the population of Muslims in Hindu-majority areas of upper Assam. “If this trend continues, it will lead to an Assam Agitation-like situation in coming years,” he said, referring to the agitation between 1979 and 1985 for the detection and deportation of undocumented immigrants
He called it the responsibility of the House to ensure that such a thing does not happen again. Sarma urged Muslim lawmakers to ensure the protection of Hindus residing in their constituencies and discourage underaged girls from getting married before turning 18. Sarma said his government was planning legislation to ban polygamy and urged Muslim lawmakers to support the move.
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