'Call To Genocide': Assam CM Himanta's Now-Deleted 'Point-Blank' Video Stirs Political Storm, Opposition Blasts BJP

New Delhi: The Assam BJP faced intense political fallout after its official social media account showed Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma symbolically shooting at framed photographs of  men in skull-caps from point-blank range, one resembling Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi.

The controversial clip, which sparked widespread accusations of inciting violence, was quickly deleted following a wave of public and political outrage.

‘Point blank shot’

Captioned as "point blank shot," the video on the Assam BJP’s official social media handle on X showed Sarma aiming a rifle at photographs pinned to a wall bearing the words “No mercy".

It ended with an image of the chief minister styled as a gunman, alongside phrases such as “No mercy to Bangladeshis", “Why did you go to Pakistan?" and “Foreigner-free Assam".

It must be noted that post was highlighted during a period of intense social friction regarding rhetoric aimed at Bengali-origin Muslims in the state.

What Opposition has to say

The Congress party issued a sharp condemnation of the video, labeling the content “deeply abhorrent and disturbing.” They further insisted that the post should not be dismissed as mere "troll" content, emphasizing the seriousness of its implications.

“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 amplified the criticism, characterizing the video as “poison spread from the very top” and calling for strict, uncompromising consequences. 

Similarly, party leader Supriya Shrinate argued that simply deleting the post was insufficient, questioning whether the judiciary and other institutions were "sleeping" in the face of such content.

Trinamool tears into Assam CM

The Assam unit of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) slammed the video as “performative bloodlust,” accusing the BJP of attempting to normalize hatred. 

Calling it “state-enabled radicalisation”, the party said, “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 escalated the criticism by labeling the video a criminal act. 

“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.

Himanta Vs Gogoi

A major political drama unfolded in Assam between Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Assam Congress President Gaurav Gogoi with both levelling major allegations against each other, involving espionage and corruption.

Addressing a long-awaited press conference in Guwahati, Chief Minister Sarma released findings from a Special Investigation Team (SIT) report, alleging that Gaurav Gogoi, his British wife Elizabeth Colburn, and a Pakistani national, Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, share "deep links".

Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi immediately dismissed the allegations as "mindless and bogus" and termed Sarma's two-and-a-half-hour press conference as "superflop", claiming that the Chief Minister provided no evidence but that they had legitimate evidence of the Sarma family's illegal occupation of 12,000 bighas (nearly 4,000 acres) of land across Assam.

Past remarks resurface

This controversy has brought renewed focus to the Chief Minister’s history of inflammatory rhetoric regarding the “Miya” community, a term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims of East Bengal origin in Assam. 

In past public statements, Sarma explicitly stated that his goal was to “make the Miya people suffer” and even advised the public to deliberately underpay rickshaw fares if the driver belonged to the community.

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