Controversial Video Depicting Assam Chief Minister Sparks Outrage, Deleted After Backlash
A disturbing video posted by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Assam unit, appearing to show Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma shooting at framed photographs of muslims, has ignited a political firestorm and drawn widespread condemnation. The video, which garnered over 500,000 views before being deleted on Saturday, February 7, 2026, has prompted accusations of inciting hatred and even calls for legal action.
The now-deleted video depicted the Chief minister, ultimately portrayed as a gunslinging cowboy, seemingly firing at images displayed on a wall bearing the words “No mercy.” One individual depicted in the video appeared to be Gaurav Gogoi, president of the Assam Congress and a Member of Parliament, wearing a white skullcap. The post, captioned ‘Point blank shot,’ was shared in the lead-up to upcoming Assembly elections and amidst the party’s ongoing campaign against what it terms ‘illegal immigrants’ – a designation frequently applied to Bengali-speaking or Bengal-origin settlers in Assam.
The swift deletion of the video has done little to quell the outrage, with opposition leaders and legal experts alike demanding accountability.K.C. Venugopal, a Congress MP and the party’s general secretary (organisation), described the video as “nothing but a call to genocide,” asserting that it could not be dismissed as mere “troll content.” “It is indeed poison spread from the very top, and there must be consequences for this,” Venugopal stated on X, formerly known as Twitter. “There is no hope that [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi will condemn or act against this, but the judiciary must act, and there shouldn’t be any leniency shown in this case.”
Supriya Shrinate, chairperson of the Congress’s social media and digital platforms, went further, characterizing the video as evidence of the BJP leaders’ character as “mass murderers.” Shrinate emphasized that simply removing the video was insufficient, questioning the responsiveness of the courts and other institutions.
https://twitter.com/SupriyaShrinate/status/1756876543210989567
Prominent lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan has urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the matter, calling for the BJP functionaries responsible for uploading the video to be held accountable. “This is a serious criminal offense,” Bhushan stated. “any opposition functionary putting up such a post would have landed him in jail under UAPA [Unlawful Activities prevention act].”
The timing of the video’s release also drew criticism, with the Kerala unit of the Congress tagging Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and questioning its coincidence with Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation. the party unit asserted that the BJP had “lost all pretensions” and was openly inciting violence against minorities.
Trinamool Congress MP sagarika Ghose condemned the Assam BJP for clear incitement to violence, stating that deleting the advertisement was not enough and that the actions potentially violated sections 152, 156, and 192 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). She called for “exemplary punishment” in the case.
Neither Chief Minister Sarma nor the BJP have offered a public clarification for the video’s creation or its subsequent removal. The incident raises serious questions about the rhetoric employed in the lead-up to the Assembly elections and the potential for such imagery to exacerbate existing communal tensions in Assam. The lack of immediate condemnation from Prime Minister Modi has further fueled the controversy, leaving many to question the goverment’s commitment to upholding secular values and protecting minority rights.
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