AIUDF general secretary Rafiqul Islam on Wednesday attacked Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over the renaming of the Karimganj district, hinting that the name was changed because it was linked to Islam. “They only see Muslims in Karim,” Rafiqul Islam added.
Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday stated that the Karimganj district will be renamed to Sribhumi. “Over 100 years ago, Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore had described modern-day Karimganj District in Assam as ‘Sribhumi’–the land of Maa Lakshmi. Today the #AssamCabinet has fulfilled this long-standing demand of our people,” he wrote on X.
Referring to Himanta Biswa Sarma steering the BJP’s election campaign in Jharkhand, Islam said it is difficult to say that he is the chief minister of Assam.
“The CM has nothing to do right now. He stayed in Jharkhand for a month. It is difficult to say that he is the chief minister of Assam,” he said.
Reacting to Himanta Biswa Sarma’s remark on Tuesday that there was no meaning of Karimganj in Assamese and Bengali dictionaries, the MLA said it was a historical name.
“Karimganj is a historical name. So if those who are saying that the names that are not in the dictionary, which are not meaningful, will change it, then thousands of names in Assam will have to be changed,” he added.
He said Karim means love and affection.
“Karim has a good meaning; why there is no meaning, it has a good meaning. Karim means love and affection,” he said.
“When India-Pakistan was divided, at the time of the referendum, some people came together to split this district into two pieces and took the piece of Sylhet with Pakistan. But it remained in Assam. We speak in pride that our ancestors made efforts to keep Karimganj with India during partition,” he added.
Sarma today said why a district should be named after an unknown person.
“I think they can criticise me, but why are they criticising Rabindranath Tagore? In Assam, why should a district be named after an unknown person? It should have been changed long back,” he said.
With inputs from ANI