After backlash, Assam BJP removes social media post showing CM Sarma ‘shooting’ at Muslims

The Assam unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has deleted a video that it had posted on its X handle on Saturday that depicted Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma symbolically firing at images of two Muslim men at point-blank range.

The clip was deleted following social media criticism. It combined what appeared to be original footage of the BJP leader handling rifles with artificial intelligence-generated images portraying Muslims as targets.

On-screen text included slogans such as “foreigner free Assam”, “No mercy”, “Why did you not go to Pakistan?” and “There is no forgiveness to Bangladeshis”.

Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose described the video as “shameful” and demanded that those responsible be immediately arrested.

In a subsequent social media post, she alleged that the BJP’s Assam unit had committed offences under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, saying it amounted to “clear incitement to violence”, and added that deleting the video would not absolve those involved.

Congress leader Supriya Shrinate said that deleting the video was insufficient, stating that the content reflected “venom, hatred and violence” and questioning the response of courts and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“This is who the BJP really is: Mass murderers,” Shrinate said.

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan said the Supreme Court should take suo motu notice of the matter and hold BJP functionaries accountable, calling it a “serious criminal offence”

“Any opposition functionary putting up such a post would have landed him in jail under UAPA,” Bhushan said.

Journalist Rana Ayyub said the post exposed “depravity from the top” even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about getting a grand reception in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

The Assam BJP post came in the backdrop of a series of remarks that Sarma made targeting Bengali-origin Muslims in the state. The chief minister had said that it was his job to “make them suffer”.

In Assam, “Miya” is a derogatory word used to refer to undocumented immigrants and is exclusively directed at Muslims of Bengali origin, who migrated to Assam during the colonial era. They are often accused of being undocumented migrants from Bangladesh.

On January 27, Sarma said that he himself was encouraging people to “keep giving troubles” to Miyas. “In a rickshaw, if the fare is Rs 5, give them Rs 4,” he had said. “Only if they face troubles will they leave Assam.”

On the same day, the chief minister had claimed that four lakh to five lakh Miya voters would be deleted when the special revision of the voter rolls takes place in the state, and acknowledged that the BJP government had “made arrangements” to preliminarily prevent them from voting.

A day later, Sarma said that BJP workers had filed more than five lakh complaints against suspected foreigners during the special revision.

Also read: Himanta Sarma’s remarks about ‘Miyas’ make a mockery of the Constitution