Last Updated:
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (A) chief Arshad Madani said he once wrote to Sonia Gandhi, urging her not to give an election ticket to Himanta Biswa Sarma over “RSS mentality”.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (A) chief Arshad Madani and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma. (Photo: X)
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (A) chief Arshad Madani sparked a major political controversy over Assam’s eviction drives by claiming that he had once written to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, asking her not to give a ticket to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, as he had an “RSS mentality”.
Speaking at an event, Madani said he had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi urging her not to give an election ticket to Sarma, who was a Congress leader at that time, warning that he had what he described as an “RSS mentality”. Madani accused Sarma of displacing 50,000 Muslims through his eviction drives.
“I wrote to Sonia Gandhi asking her not to give a ticket to Himanta Biswa Sarma from Congress, as he had an RSS mentality. Now he is setting Assam on fire by harassing Muslims,” said Madani.
Notably, Himanta Biswa Sarma was a leader in the Congress from the Jalukbari constituency. He was elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2006 and 2011. He held key portfolios in the Congress government, but resigned from the party after differences with then-CM Tarun Gogoi. Sarma joined the BJP in 2015.
‘Do Maulvis Decide…’
Madani’s remarks drew sharp responses from BJP leaders, who criticised Congress leaders for appeasement politics. “Today, Madani has warned me, and Rahul Gandhi had threatened me earlier. I want to tell Madani that the more you threaten me, the more the people of Assam will rise up and fight against them,” said Sarma in response to his remarks.
“The question is: do Maulvis decide who gets Congress tickets? It is becoming increasingly clear that Congress stands on the wrong side of the civilisational debate,” said BJP IT Department in-charge Amit Malviya.
“I wrote to Sonia Gandhi asking her not to give a ticket to Himanta Biswa Sarma from Congress, as he had an RSS mentality. Now he is setting Assam on fire…”— Arshad Madani, President of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind (A).The question is: do Maulvis decide who gets Congress tickets?… pic.twitter.com/JFyijTVCZO
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) August 29, 2025
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, “Did Maulanas decide Congress tickets or did Congress Election Committee? It seems INC was not Indian National Congress but Islamist Congress.”
Eviction Drives In Assam
The row stemmed from Sarma’s recent claim that over 160 sq km of land has been cleared of encroachment since his government took over in May 2021, affecting more than 50,000 people. He said all unauthorised occupation of forest land, VGR (Village Grazing Reserve), PGR (Professional Grazing Reserve), ‘Satras’ (Vaishnavite monastery), ‘Namghars’ (prayer houses), and other public areas would be cleared in a phased manner.
However, the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind expressed alarm and said the current actions in Assam are being carried out in an inhuman and discriminatory manner, motivated by religious prejudice and hate-filled rhetoric. The organisation called for the immediate removal of the Assam CM and initiate criminal proceedings against him.
“It is the people of Assam who will take the decision and not Jamiat President Mahmood Madani… If I get Madani, I will send him to Bangladesh. I will only say one thing that I don’t care about Jamiat at all or anyone else,” Sarma said earlier.
Most of the people displaced due to the eviction drive are from the Bengali-speaking Muslims community, referred to as ‘Miyas’ in the state, who claim that their ancestors had moved and settled in the areas where drives were carried out after their land in the ‘Char’ or riverine areas were washed away due to erosion by the River Brahmaputra.
(with inputs from agencies)
Aveek Banerjee is a Senior Sub Editor at News18. Based in Noida with a Master’s in Global Studies, Aveek has more than three years of experience in digital media and news curation, specialising in international…Read More
Aveek Banerjee is a Senior Sub Editor at News18. Based in Noida with a Master’s in Global Studies, Aveek has more than three years of experience in digital media and news curation, specialising in international… Read More
- Location :
Assam, India, India
Read More
