After ‘flood jihad’ tirade, Himanta now targets Muslim-owned university for ‘Mecca’-like structure

On Monday, Sarma accelerated his attack on the university. The large main gate of the University has three domes atop it, about which he said, “It’s embarrassing to go there, you have to go under ‘Mecca’. What we are saying is that there should be a namghar (community prayer hall, part of Assam’s neo-Vaishnavite tradition) also there. ‘Mecca-Medina’, church. Make all three… They have kept a ‘Mecca’ there. Let them make a namghar, make a church. We will walk under all three, why will we walk under just one,” he said.

Questioned by reporters on his use of the term ‘jihad’, he said, “They are doing jihaador baap (slang, translating to ‘father of jihad’). I’m being mild by calling it jihad. It is destroying our education system. Whatever attacks our civilisation, our culture, that is called jihad.”

Sarma’s political opponents have pointed out that he had inaugurated a new block at the university in 2021, in the presence of the Hoque. However, on Monday, Sarma said he had never visited the campus for an inauguration, but had rather gone there for a function attended by the then President Ram Nath Kovind. USTM has the largest auditorium in the area, making it a popular venue for major events, and Sarma said he is having an equally large auditorium built in Guwahati to counter that.

“I went and thought that if this auditorium stays here, Guwahati’s people will surrender before him for the auditorium. That’s why I quietly started building a bigger auditorium than that in Khanapara (Guwahati)… By November or January, we will inaugurate our own 5,000 seater auditorium here so that people don’t have to go to USTM, “ he said.