Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh condemns Tejashwi Yadav for racist comment on Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The exchange between Tejashwi Yadav and Himanta Biswa Sarma escalated due to Mr Yadav’s post on X that made a critical remark about Mr Sarma, likening him to the Chinese version of Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. This comment alluded to Mr Sarma’s desire to “gain cheap popularity” and sparked controversy. In response to Mr Yadav’s attack, Mr Sarma defended himself by stating that the decision to abolish the two-hour *jumma* break was not solely made by the Chief Minister, but was supported by both Hindu and Muslim legislators.

He also pointed out that no Muslim MLA in the Assam assembly protested when this decision was announced, despite there being 25 Muslim MLAs out of a total of 126. Furthermore, Mr Sarma explained that the proposal to remove the *jumma* break was agreed upon unanimously by the rules committee, which is headed by the Speaker. He criticized Mr Yadav for being racist towards people in the northeast, drawing parallels with previous incidents of racial remarks made by others towards the region.

Mr Sarma also accused Mr Yadav of hypocrisy, questioning whether Bihar had similar practices, and suggesting that Mr Yadav should have implemented a similar break when he was deputy chief minister of Bihar. The text also mentions an incident from May 2021, where a blogger from Punjab was charged by the Arunachal Pradesh government for making racial remarks against a Congress MLA. The blogger, Paras Singh, referred to the Congress MLA as “non-Indian” and claimed that the state was a part of China in a video, sparking outrage among Arunachal residents and people from other parts of the country.

Paras Singh was arrested, brought to Arunachal Pradesh, and later granted bail after expressing remorse and apologizing for his actions.