NEW DELHI: The Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat is in hot waters overthe controversial statement against the rising population of Indian Muslimsin parts of country.
His controversial statement has drawn lashback from the Muslimorganisations across the India who had warned Army Chief against issuingsuch political statements.
The Army has been forced to issue a clarification after General Bipin Rawatcommented on the rise of Maulana Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF (All IndiaUnited Democratic Front) in Assam. The Army said: “There is nothingpolitical or religious in the talk. The Army Chief just mentionedamalgamation and development in the seminar on North-East organised at DRDOBhawan on 21 February 18.”
The Army chief is facing the heat for saying that the rise of the AIUDF hasbeen “faster” than that of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the1980s. “There is a party called AIUDF. If you look at it, they have grownin a faster time-frame than the BJP grew over the years,” he said whilereferring to the BJP winning only 2 seats in 1984. “The AIDUF is moving ata faster pace in Assam.”
Criticising General Rawat for his comment, All India Majlis-e-IttehadulMuslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Awaisi warned against speaking onpolitical matters. Owaisi had said that it is not the work of the Armychief work to comment on the rise of a political party. “What, the ArmyChief should not interfere in political matters it is not his work tocomment on the rise of a political party, Democracy & Constitution allowsit and Army will always work under an Elected Civilian leadership,” Owaisisaid in a tweet on Wednesday.
General Rawat had said that a “planned immigration is taking place becauseof our western neighbour. They will always try and ensure that this area istaken over, playing the proxy dimension of warfare,” General Rawat hadsaid, talking about the influx of people from Bangladesh into theNortheast. He was addressing a conference on bridging gaps and securingborders in the Northeast region.
Speaking about the AIUDF, party MLA Aminul Islam said their popularity isincreasing because of the work that they are doing. “AIUDF is working forthe downtrodden. this is why our popularity is growing faster than BJP. Weare hopeful that people of Assam irrespective of caste and creed, willaccept AIUDF and our party will come to power soon,” Islam said.