“We are Indians by accident”: BJP MLA Shiladitya Dev

Guwahati, February 14, 2019:

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Shiladitya Dev has again come up with another controversial statement in front of the media. This time the Hojai MLA has made shocking claims that Assamese people are “accidentally Indians”. The MLA made this statement while reacting to the ‘natural death’ of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.

“We are accidentally Indians because Assam was being pushed East Pakistan. If not for the efforts of leaders like Gopinath Bordoloi and Subhash Chandra Bose, we would have been absorbed into Bangladesh; we would have been residents of East Pakistan. Thus, we are Indians by accident.”

He also added that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 if amended, will not have any impact on the people of Assam. “After 1971, no Hindu-Bangladeshis have arrived in Assam. People have been omitted from the NRC because they have not been able to provide necessary documents”, he added.

Statements like these from senior BJP leaders like Shiladitya Dev will no doubt sow more fear into the minds of the Assamese and might incite more division based on communal grounds.