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'Can't Get Away With Deleting Ad': Outrage as BJP Video Depicts CM Himanta Shooting at Muslims

'BJP Assam has committed a UAPA offence and is guilty of clear incitement to violence.'
'BJP Assam has committed a UAPA offence and is guilty of clear incitement to violence.'
 can t get away with deleting ad   outrage as bjp video depicts cm himanta shooting at muslims
Video screengrabs showing Himanta Biswa Sarma in the ad uploaded by BJP Assam's X page.
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New Delhi: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Malaysia, which recognises Islam as its official religion, his party's Assam wing a day ago posted and then deleted a video depicting state Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma shooting Muslims.

The video marks an extraordinary and illegal escalation of Sarma's already communal haranguing of the state's Muslim population.

It shows what appears to be original footage of Sarma handling an air rifle interspersed with videos created by artificial intelligence, showing bullets from the air rifle hitting images of men with skull caps and beards – clearly meant to be markers of their faith.

Sarma is then depicted as a hero of a Western film, with text against his image calling for a “foreigner free Assam”. Reports say that the video also has Assamese text professing: “no mercy,” “Why did you not go to Pakistan?” and “There is no forgiveness to Bangladeshis,” among other phrases.

It was captioned "point blank shot."

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The video invited immediate censure, despite the move to delete it.

"Even judging by the ugliness of the hate speeches being used by politicians all over the country these days, particularly when States are facing elections, the nastiness of the recent speech of Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Chief Minister of Assam comes as a shock to citizens of this country," the Constitutional Conduct Group of retired IAS, IFS and IPS officers has noted in a statement.

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The group has urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of Sarma's hate speeches as they directly violate, and are in contempt of the court's own orders in the past.

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Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose wrote that this was a clear offence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

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"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 wrote on X.

Earlier, she had tagged the prime minister, along with Union home minister Amit Shah and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, drawing their attention to the "shameful" ad.

"Whoever has made this ad 👇🏽 needs to be IMMEDIATELY arrested . You need to act," Ghose had written.

Congress handles on social media and senior leader K.C. Venugopal also posted against the video. "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. 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 wrote.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra has reshared the video, asking the courts to take note. "Dear Supreme Court, dear CJI , dear every Judge of every High Court in India - please watch this video. SC in Writ 940/2022 ordered suo moto FiRs for hate speech. Please let us know what more this man needs to do for you to wake up?"

Sarma has earlier said that his job was to “make the Miya people suffer”, and then declared that Muslims would not be allowed to vote in Assam. He promised that “four to five lakh” Muslim votes would be deleted in the state which is due to see assembly elections soon.

“Whoever can give trouble in any way should give, including you. In a rickshaw, if the fare is Rs 5, give them Rs 4. Only if they face troubles will they leave Assam… These are not issues. Himanta Biswa Sarma and the BJP are directly against Miyas," he said.

'Miya' refers to the Bengali-speaking and East Bengal-origin Muslim population of Assam. While the term is used pejoratively by the likes of Sarma, the community has also reclaimed it and are known to use it to identify themselves.

A few days ago, led by Hiren Gohain, 43 leading writers, intellectuals, professionals and activists of Assam approached the high court of Guwahati to urge suo motu cognisance of Sarma's repeated hate speech, executive interference in revision of voters list and various constitutional violations.

This article went live on February eighth, two thousand twenty six, at zero minutes past twelve at noon.

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