Why residents of Assam capital are not buying the chief minister’s claim of ‘flood jihad’
Experts and residents blamed the construction of flyovers, and the encroachment of wetlands for the floods in Guwahati.
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On August 5, Guwahati experienced one of the worst urban floods in its living memory. A two-hour downpour left shops and homes inundated.
The largest city in the North East came to a standstill. Thousands of residents were stuck on the roads and newly-built flyovers for more than six or seven hours.
In the face of mounting criticism, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma blamed a private university located in neighbouring state of Meghalaya for the flood. Indeed, he went a step ahead and accused the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya of “flood jihad”.
The USTM’s campus, Sarma alleged, was built by cutting trees and destroying hills in the Ri Bhoi district, triggering floods in Guwahati.
The university, set up in 2008, is owned by Mahbubul Hoque, a Muslim of Bengali origin from Assam’s Karimganj district. “We talk about land jihad, he has started a flood jihad against Assam,” Sarma claimed. “Otherwise, no one can cut hills in such a ruthless way. It is a deliberate [act].”
In accusing the USTM of a sinister plot, Sarma was echoing social media accounts that claimed in 2022 that miscreants had destroyed a river embankment in Assam’s Silchar as part of a “flood jihad” against Hindu residents of the town.
Last year, the Assam chief minister...
