The Assam Assembly has decided to do away with the two-hour “colonial” era break on Friday to allow Muslim members of the House to offer their namaz despite “opposition” by the two Muslim MLAs who attended the meeting where the decision was taken on Thursday evening.

The decision will come into effect from the next Assembly session. Assam has a BJP-led state government.

The “unanimous” decision to amend the rule was taken by the Assembly Speaker headed Rules Committee so as to provide for the sitting of the House for conduct of its proceedings on Fridays like any other day.

“So, today, history has been created by doing away with this colonial practice which was aimed at dividing the society on religious basis,” an official statement said.

According to the statement, this practice was started in 1937 and the “House used to be adjourned at 11am on Friday for two hours to facilitate the Muslim MLAs to perform namaz and resume work after lunch”, the statement said.

On all other days, the House, according to the statement, used to conduct its proceedings without any adjournment “for religious purposes”.

Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary “took note of this matter and in view of the secular nature of the Constitution” and proposed that the state Assembly “must conduct its proceedings on Fridays like any other day without any adjournment.... Accordingly, the proposal to do away with this rule in the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly was placed before the Rules Committee,” the statement said, adding that the Rules Committee “unanimously” agreed to drop this rule.

Thanking Speaker Daimary and the MLAs for “this historical decision”, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on X, “By doing away with the 2 hour Jumma break, @AssamAssembly has prioritised productivity and shed another vestige of colonial baggage. This practice was introduced by Muslim League’s Syed Saadulla in 1937.”

Two Opposition AIUDF MLAs — Rafiqul Islam and Aminul Islam — told The Telegraph that a party MLA (Aminul Islam of Dhing LAC) and a Congress MLA (Misbahul Islam Laskar of Barkhola LAC) who had attended the meeting on Thursday evening had opposed the move citing tradition and precedent and its adverse impact on the 30 Muslim MLAs in the House.

Rafiqul Islam said his colleague, Aminul Islam, had opposed the move because they will have to offer the “compulsory and obligatory” Friday namaz because it has a fixed time and has to be offered in a masjid and if there is no adjournment “we cannot participate in the proceedings”. Therefore, the current practice should be allowed to continue as nothing has been adversely impacted till now because of this practice. Those backing the proposal harped on India being a secular country.

Rafiqul Islam said it is “unfortunate” the Assam chief minister “nowadays takes lot of interest in what the Muslims will eat and do”.

“He (CM) likes doing such things... what Muslims will eat, when they will pray, how will they marry, where they will buy land or where they can go or not in their own state. Such unconstitutional imposition should be a matter of concern,” Rafiqul Islam said.

The decision comes a day after the Assembly passed two bills — Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages & Divorces Bill, 2024, and the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation Bill, 2024.

These new laws, representatives of Muslim community, which makes up for over 34 per cent of the state’s population, will adversely impact them.

These develoments also comes in wake of the seven-day deadline to Miya Muslims (Bengali-speaking) to leave Upper Assam. The deadline was issued by Sivasagar-based organisations.

The Congress-led Opposition has been going after Sarma for his “ hate speeches” and “gross violation of the Constitution”.