Face of fascism: Opposition trains guns at BJP over Himanta's 'point-blank' video

A video shared on the Assam BJP’s official social media account, depicting Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma symbolically firing at Muslims at point-blank range, triggered sharp political backlash and allegations of incitement to violence, forcing its deletion amid mounting outrage.

The video, captioned “point blank shot”, showed what appeared to be original footage of Sarma handling an air rifle, interspersed with artificial intelligence-generated visuals of bullets striking images of men wearing skull caps and beards, markers clearly associated with Muslim identity. Text flashed across the screen reading “foreigner free Assam” and “No mercy”, alongside other phrases that critics described as overtly communal.

In some frames, Sarma was portrayed as a hero from a Western-style film, while Assamese text in the video reportedly read, “Why did you not go to Pakistan?” and “There is no forgiveness to Bangladeshis.” The timing of the post coincided with heightened tensions over rhetoric targeting Bengali-origin Muslims in Assam.

OPPOSITION CRIES INCITEMENT, CALLS FOR ACTION

The Congress strongly condemned the video, calling it “deeply abhorrent and disturbing” and rejecting any attempt to dismiss it as troll content.

“The BJP’s official Assam Pradesh handle posted a video that appears to glorify the targeted, ‘point-blank’ murder of minorities. This amounts to a call to mass violence and genocide,” the party said in a statement shared on its official handle. It urged the judiciary to intervene, saying there was little expectation that the Prime Minister would act.

Senior Congress leader K C Venugopal echoed the charge, writing that the video was “poison spread from the very top” and demanded consequences without leniency. Party leader Supriya Shrinate also reacted sharply, saying deleting the video was “not enough” and asking whether courts and institutions were “sleeping”.

TRINAMOOL, OTHERS ESCALATE CRITICISM

The All India Trinamool Congress Assam unit described the video as “performative bloodlust” and accused the ruling party of normalising hatred. “Imagine an elected Chief Minister miming point-blank shooting at Muslims in a party video so obscene that, after fierce backlash, it had to be taken down,” the party wrote, calling it “state-enabled radicalisation”.

Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose went a step further, arguing that the video amounted to a criminal offence. “The BJP Assam has committed a UAPA offence and is guilty of clear incitement to violence. Can’t get away with deleting the ad,” she wrote on X, citing multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and calling for exemplary punishment.

PAST REMARKS RESURFACE

The controversy has revived scrutiny of Sarma’s earlier remarks targeting the ‘Miya’ community, a term used for Bengali-speaking, East Bengal-origin Muslims in Assam. In previous public comments, Sarma had said his job was to “make the Miya people suffer” and suggested underpaying rickshaw fares if the driver was a Miya Muslim.

“Whoever can give trouble in any way should give, including you. In a rickshaw, if the fare is Rs 5, give them Rs 4. Only if they face troubles will they leave Assam,” he had said at a public event. He has also claimed that “four to five lakh” Muslim votes would be deleted ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

While the term ‘Miya’ is often used pejoratively by political leaders, the community has also reclaimed it and uses it as a self-identifier.

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