A video grab shows an image of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma holding a rifle. Video posted by Assam BJP showing images of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma points a rifle at two men wearing skull caps.some of whom resembled Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, sparked a backlash across political circles, and the party was forced to demote Mr. X’s post.
The video, uploaded on Saturday with the caption “Close Range Shot,” shows Salma firing at a photo of two men, ending with footage of Salma dressed like a cowboy and brandishing a gun, overlaid with phrases such as “There is no mercy for Bangladeshis” and “Why did you go to Pakistan?” and “Assam with no foreigners”.
Congress said in a statement that the video “appears to glorify targeted ‘point-blank’ killings of minorities.”
“This is so abhorrent and disturbing that it cannot be dismissed as random troll content. It amounts to a call for mass violence and genocide. It reflects the true nature of this fascist regime, which has harbored this hatred for decades and has sought to normalize it over the past 11 years,” the group said.
“Given the gravity of the issue, strict action must be taken against this act that spreads disharmony and toxicity in society. It is clear that the Prime Minister has no hope of condemning this and ensuring accountability. However, the judiciary must intervene decisively,” it said.
The post was deleted on Sunday and an Assam BJP spokesperson when contacted by The Indian Express declined to comment on the post. “I have no comment. It has been deleted and I have nothing to say,” said spokesperson Ranjiv Kumar Sarma.
The BJP’s Assam social media convener Biswajit Hound, 33, also refused to comment on the deleted video. He said the social media team is made up of four co-convenors, all under the age of 35, 20 members at the state level, one convener, two co-convenors and five members from each district.
In September last year, the same handle X, which has more than 200,000 followers, had posted an AI-generated video with the text “Assam without BJP”. The videos showed a man wearing a skull cap cutting meat next to a road with a sign reading “Legalize Beef,” and men wearing skull caps and women in burqas and hijabs walking along border fences in various locations, including a tea garden, the airport, an amusement park and stadium in Guwahati, and Langarh, a monument to the Ahom dynasty, with the words “illegal immigrants” written on them.
The following month, the Supreme Court issued a petition notice to X and the official handle of the Assam BJP seeking directions to remove the video. At the time, Kaund told The Indian Express: “We don’t use any agencies, we write our own content. We don’t worry about what self-proclaimed liberal politicians are going to say. Our content is based on our fieldwork and what we’ve gained. “It’s based on reactions. A lot of common people in Assam from small towns and villages are on Facebook and accordingly our content there is more in line with their sensibilities. On Twitter we are more aggressive and that’s what people respond to and like,” he said.
The All India Trinamool Congress called Saturday’s video a “green light for genocide and mass murder”.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party has single-handedly dragged India’s political discourse down the drain and shattered the secular and pluralist spirit of our Constitution,” it said.
“Himanta Biswa Sarma was portrayed as a gunman who shot dead people from minority communities. If this is not a green light for genocide and mass murder, then what is? The same CM had earlier urged people to harass Muslims through everyday acts like not paying them salaries, but this crosses the line. This is open incitement,” it said. “The Bharatiya Janata Party is playing the communal card at every opportunity to polarize society, pit communities against each other and normalize bloodbath in public life. Criminal proceedings must be filed against him immediately. The Election Commission cannot sit idly by. It must take cognizance of this open advertisement of targeted hate crimes against the community.”
The CPI(M) termed it an “open call for ethnic cleansing and genocide”.
“Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam are using the SIR exercise and the ‘infiltrator’ bogey to make highly communal and provocative statements and call for targeted violence against Muslims. The latest video, posted by the official handle of the Bharatiya Janata Party, amounts to a public call for ethnic cleansing and genocide,” it said.
“Before a catastrophe happens in Assam, the Chief Minister must be jailed. The Supreme Court should immediately take strict action against the Chief Minister and his associates for damaging communal harmony, creating enmity between communities and calling for violence openly. Our secular fabric must be protected at all costs,” he said.
