Assam BJP has come under fire for a video posted on its social media handle depicting Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma holding a rifle and firing shots at Muslims in point-blank range, along with texts such as "foreigner-free Assam," "No mercy" and "There is no forgiveness to Bangladeshis."
The now-deleted video was posted on the saffron party's X handle with the caption "point blank shoot" and shows actual footage of the CM firing shots, clubbed with AI-generated images of people wearing skullcaps and beards, representing Muslims.
The text displayed in the video reads: "foreigner free Assam," "No mercy," "Why did you not go to Pakistan?" and "There is no forgiveness to Bangladeshis," among other phrases.
The video triggered outrage from political parties, activists and journalists, prompting the BJP to take it down.
Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose called it "shameful" and demanded action against the BJP under the UAPA, stressing that the offence amounted to incitement of violence.
"The @BJP4India Assam has committed a UAPA offence and is guilty of clear incitement to violence. Can’t get away with deleting the ad. Also attracts 152, 156 and 192 BNS. Exemplary punishment must be given in this case," she said in a post on X.
In an earlier post, she shared the video and wrote, "Shameful. Whoever has made this ad needs to be IMMEDIATELY arrested" and demanded action from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Amit Shah and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Congress general secretery KC Venugopal slammed the video as a "call for genocide."
"An official BJP handle posted a video showing the targeted, 'point-blank' murder of minorities. This is nothing but a call to genocide - a dream this fascist regime has harboured for decades," Venugopal said on X.
This is not an innocuous video to be ignored as troll content, but as poison spread from the very top, and there must be consequences for this, he said. "There is no hope that Narendra Modi will condemn or act against this, but the judiciary must act, and there shouldn't be any leniency shown in this case," Venugopal said.
Calling the BJP "mass murderers," Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said merely taking the video was not enough. "This is who the BJP really is: Mass murderers. This venom, hatred and violence is on you, Mr Modi. Are the courts and other institutions sleeping?" she said on X.
Journalist Rana Ayyub said the video depicted the deprivity of BJP's top leaders.
"Hate to amplify this but just exposes the depravity from the top. BJP twitter handle shares a meme of Himanta Biswa firing a bullet at Muslims while Prime Minister Modi talks about a grand reception in muslim majority, Malaysia," she said in a post on X.
The video came as Assam CM has been facing criticism for his series of "hate speech" against the Bengali-speaking Muslim community of Assam.
Speaking on the special revision of electoral rolls in Assam, Himanta said that "four lakh to five lakh Miya voters" will be deleted from the electoral rolls and added his job was to "make them suffer."
Miya is a derogatory term used to refer to Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam.
"What ‘vote chori’ [vote theft] means to us? Yes, we are trying to steal some Miya votes. Ideally, they should not be allowed to vote in Assam. They should be able to vote in Bangladesh," Sarma said.
Earlier, he said notices regarding the electoral roll revision were being served only to Miyas.
"Which Hindu has got notice? Which Assamese Muslim has got notice? Notices have been served to Miyas and such people, else they will walk over our heads," he said.
The comments triggered outrage from various corners with rights activist and lawyer Harsh Mander filing a police complaint against the chief minister and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind approaching the Supreme Court stating that the comments were communal, unconstitutional, and amount to hate speech by a person holding a high constitutional office.