GuwahatiAssam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday hit out at AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal, three days after his controversial comments on women and the Hindu community, saying a mother’s womb cannot be seen as a “farmland”. . He urged Muslim women not to be “swayed” by the statements of “people like Ajmal” who ask them to have more children and limit their families to two children to provide them with a good education . Responding to Ajmal’s comments at a public meeting in Bongaigaon, which is located near Dhubri, which Ajmal represents in the Lok Sabha, Sarma said people, especially women from the Muslim community, “should not be swayed by those Who needs their vote.” ,
“I don’t need your votes, but don’t listen to Ajmal. Do not produce more than two children so that you can make them top sportsmen, doctors and engineers. The AIUDF chief, in an interview to a media house on Friday, had made comments on women and Hindu men as well as on Sarma, allegedly in response to the chief minister’s remarks on ‘love jihad’. Revered as Maulana, Ajmal reportedly advised Hindus to marry at an early age in order to have more children like Muslims.
As the comments were condemned and complaints filed with police across the state, the MP apologized the next day and said he was ‘ashamed’ of the controversy it had sparked. He, however, said that his comments were twisted and he did not target any community. Sarma, who inaugurated the ‘A Fortnight for Development’ initiative for various districts at the event, said “people like Ajmal thought that education, development would not reach lower Assam”. They were trying to convince the U.S. that they were a “baby factory”.
Ajmal said that ‘seeds should be sown on fertile soil’. I ask them if our mother’s farm has a womb? quipped Sarma, a prominent BJP leader from the North East.
“We should not listen to them (Ajmal and his ilk) and focus on the welfare of our children,” he said. Continuing his attack on the AIUDF chief, the chief minister said, “Ajmal has no right to tell our women how many children they should have. If he does, he (Ajmal) will have to take responsibility for the children.” “I will ask everyone to produce 10-12 children if they are willing to pay for their upkeep,” Sarma said sarcastically.
He explained the problems poor Bengali-speaking Muslims living in the ‘Char’ (river) areas faced in raising their children, especially educating them and keeping malnutrition at bay. “After seeing their (victim) faces, one cannot go home and sleep peacefully… I request the women of our Muslim community to produce only so many children whom they can become doctors or engineers. So that we can educate for the junab and not the junab or imam (Muslim religious leader),” Sarma said.
On Ajmal’s jibe that Hindus have fewer children because they start their families much later than Muslims, the chief minister said it ensures that Hindu children are well educated. Sarma urged the people to shun communal politics and instead engage in politics of development for the development of the state.