Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is in the eye of a storm.
The controversy centred around a video posted by the state BJP posted on social media.
In the video, which was deleted after it triggered a massive uproar and strong political backlash, Biswa Sarma appears to be symbolically firing at Muslims at point-blank range.
Captioned ‘Point blank shot’, it showed what appeared to be original footage of Biswa Sarma with an air rifle in hand, interspersed with AI-generated visuals of bullets striking images of men wearing skull caps and beards. One of those men in skullcap appeared to be Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi.
The words ‘No mercy’ and ‘Foreigner free Assam’ flashed across the screen alongside other phrases that critics described as overtly communal.
Congress said it was a “call to genocide”.
“This is nothing but a call to genocide — a dream this fascist regime has harboured since decades. This is not an innocuous video to be ignored as troll content. It is poison spread from the very top, and there must be consequences for this,” senior Congress leader KC Venugopal posted.
“The BJP’s official Assam Pradesh handle posted a video that appears to glorify the targeted, ‘point-blank’ murder of minorities. It is deeply abhorrent and disturbing and cannot be dismissed as random troll content. This amounts to a call to mass violence and genocide,” read a post from the official handle of the Congress.
“It is a reflection of the true face of this fascist regime, which has harboured this hatred for decades and, in the last 11 years, tried to normalise it. Considering the gravity of the matter, there must be strict action against this act of spreading disharmony and poison in society,” it further stated.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate called the BJP ‘Mass murderers’.
Deleting the video where Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma is shown shooting Muslim men with a caption ‘POINT BLANK SHOT’ isn’t 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? pic.twitter.com/pcWd6nLfpf
— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) February 8, 2026
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) also called for action, saying the post has “reduced” Indian politics to “Performative bloodlust, normalised hatred, and televised dehumanisation of Muslims”.
“This is the same man who earlier urged people to harass minorities by underpaying rickshaw fares, training citizens in petty cruelty as political praxis. But now, the cruelty has gone macro. BJP isn’t hinting anymore. They are baying for blood, and daring institutions to stop them,” the post added.