Media bodies in Assam slammed Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday, for allegedly targeting a journalist’s religious identity in response to his question on flattening hills in the State.

During the Chief Minister’s interaction with journalists on August 21, reporter Shah Alam, a Muslim, sought to know the status of action against hill-cutting in a part of Assam. In videos of the interaction, the CM can then be heard asking Mr. Alam’s name and associating him with a Muslim-owned university of Meghalaya accused of flattening hills to cause floods in Assam.

“Instead of answering the question put forth by a local journalist, the Chief Minister referred to his religious identity to make a trivial remark,” Samim Sultana Ahmed and Dhanjit Kumar Das, the president and general secretary of the Journalists’ Union of Assam, said in a statement on Thursday.

‘Personal attack’

“A personal attack on a journalist based on his religion is not expected from a Chief Minister, who also undermined the right of journalists to ask questions,” they said, urging Dr. Sarma to abstain from making such comments.

The Gauhati Press Club also expressed concern over the increasing instances of disparaging responses by political leaders when journalists ask them questions, as part of their job, during media interactions.

“In the latest case, the Chief Minister pulled the religious identity of a journalist into context without any apparent relevance… We urge all political leaders to ensure no recurrence of such instances in the future, and show dignity to their position as well as the role of media,” Sushmita Goswami and Sanjoy Ray, the press club’s president and general secretary, said in a statement.

The Journalist Association For Assam’s president Abhideep Choudhury, working president Pankaj Deka, chief organising secretary Kushal Saikia, and secretary general Kunja Mohan Roy issued a similar statement, saying that bringing a journalist’s religious or ethnic identity into an issue “can never be acceptable”.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also slammed Dr. Sarma’s comments. “What the Assam CM said is unacceptable and condemnable. A sick mind and a loud mouth are a toxic combination,” he said in a post on X. ( With PTI Inputs )