A video shared by the official social media handle of the BJP Assam, showing Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma symbolically firing at Muslim men triggered widespread outrage on Saturday, drawing sharp political reactions and allegations of incitement to violence. Following intense backlash, the post was later deleted.
The video, captioned “point blank shot”, used clips of Sarma handling an air rifle, reportedly from a visit to a sports complex, and merged them with artificial intelligence-generated visuals. These visuals showed bullets striking images of men wearing skull caps and beards, widely seen as markers of Muslim identity. The video also carried text such as “foreigner free Assam”, “No mercy”, “Why did you not go to Pakistan?” and “There is no forgiveness to Bangladeshis”, which critics said openly promoted communal hatred.
In several frames, Sarma was portrayed in a cinematic, hero-like manner, similar to a Western action film character. The timing of the post further intensified criticism as it came amid ongoing political rhetoric in Assam targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims, often referred to as the Miya community.
The Congress strongly condemned the video and rejected claims that it was merely troll content. In a statement, the party said the BJP’s official Assam handle had posted content that appeared to glorify the point-blank killing of minorities. The Congress described it as a call to mass violence and urged the judiciary to intervene, saying there was little hope of action from the Prime Minister.
Congress general secretary and Lok Sabha MP K C Venugopal said the video reflected poison spread from the very top and warned that there should be no leniency in dealing with such content. Congress leader Supriya Shrinate said deleting the video was not enough and questioned whether courts and institutions were “sleeping”.
The Trinamool Congress also attacked the ruling party. The party’s Assam unit described the video as performative bloodlust and accused the BJP of normalising hatred. Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose said the video amounted to clear incitement to violence and claimed it could attract serious criminal provisions. She said the BJP Assam unit could not escape accountability simply by deleting the post.
Congress MP from Assam, Gaurav Gogoi, also criticised Sarma, saying the Chief Minister had embarrassed himself despite holding a long press conference to explain the issue. Gogoi said journalists remained unconvinced and alleged that people in Assam were no longer taking Sarma’s statements seriously. He further alleged that Sarma should explain how his family acquired large tracts of land across the state, adding that such land would be reclaimed if the Congress came to power.
The controversy has also revived criticism of Sarma’s past remarks against the Miya community. In earlier speeches, the Chief Minister had said his job was to make Miya people suffer and had even suggested troubling them in daily life, including underpaying rickshaw fares. He had also claimed that several lakh Muslim voters would be removed from the electoral rolls ahead of elections.
