Assam: Congress slams BJP’s ‘point-blank shot’ video for targeting minorities

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Assam unit has deleted a video posted on social media that showed Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appearing to shoot at framed photographs of Muslims on a wall bearing the words “No mercy.”

One of the people shown in the video appeared to be Gaurav Gogoi, the Assam Congress president and Jorhat MP, depicted wearing a white skullcap.

The video, uploaded late on Saturday (February 7, 2026), garnered more than 500,000 views. It sparked a row, drawing sharp condemnation by Opposition leaders, activists and legal professionals, who accused the BJP of promoting hatred against Muslims.

Captioned ‘Point blank shot’, the video ended with the Chief Minister dressed as a gunslinging cowboy. Neither Mr. Sarma nor the BJP issued an explanation for the post and its deletion.

The video was shared ahead of the Assembly elections, amid the party’s campaign against what it calls ‘illegal immigrants’ — a term used for Bengali-speaking or Bengal-origin settlers in Assam.

Congress MP and party general secretary (organisation), K.C. Venugopal described the video as ‘nothing but a call to genocide’ and said it could not 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 (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,” he posted on X.

Supriya Shrinate, Congress chairperson of social media and digital platforms, said the video was proof of the BJP leaders’ character as ‘mass murderers’. She added that deleting the video was insufficient, and questioned if the courts and other institutions were asleep.

Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan urged the Supreme Court to take suo-motu cognisance of the video and hold the BJP functionaries responsible for uploading it to account.

“This is a serious criminal offence. Any opposition functionary putting up such a post would have landed him in jail under UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act),” he said.

Tagging Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the Kerala unit of Congress questioned the timing of the video during Mr. Modi’s visit to Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country. “The BJP has lost all pretensions that they’ve officially started giving open calls for minority genocide, that too by showing a Chief Minister who is under a constitutional oath shooting Muslims down,” the party unit posted on X.

Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose said the Assam BJP was guilty of clear incitement to violence. “Can’t get away with deleting the ad. Also attracts 152, 156, and 192 BNS (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Exemplary punishment must be given in this case,” she said.