Assam BJP claims video showing CM Himanta Sarma ‘shooting’ at Muslims was ‘unauthorised’

The Assam unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has claimed that a post on its X handle showing Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma symbolically firing at two Muslim men was “unauthorised”, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.

One of the four co-convenors of the Assam BJP’s social media cell has been removed from his position in connection with the video. State BJP chief Dilip Saikia told the newspaper that the post by the co-convener was “immature” and “unauthorised”.

A first information report has also been registered in connection with the video, PTI quoted Sarma as saying

The video, which was posted by the Assam unit of the BJP on Saturday, has since been deleted following criticism.

The clip combined what appeared to be original footage of the chief minister handling rifles with artificial intelligence-generated images portraying Muslims as targets. On-screen text included slogans such as “Foreigner free Assam”, “No mercy”, “Why did you not go to Pakistan?” and “There is no forgiveness to Bangladeshis”.

The Opposition Congress and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen filed complaints with the police against Sarma and the BJP for the video. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India also moved the Supreme Court.

The co-convenor of the Assam BJP’s social media cell, who was removed after the video received criticism, was among four party workers appointed to the position by Saikia in August 2025, The Indian Express reported. The convener of the cell is 33-year-old Biswajit Khound.

Saikia told the newspaper that the party was concerned about “illegal immigrant Bangladeshis in Assam”, adding that there had to be a movement in the society against this.

“But the party does not support the idea of a mala fide intent of targeting Muslims with bullets,” the newspaper quoted him as saying, “It was mishandled by an immature and unauthorised person; the party took note, and we got the video deleted.”

Khound also noted that content was created and posted on social media by a team of party workers who worked as volunteers. There was no private agency involved, he added.

Saikia also said that co-conveners had the authority to upload posts themselves on routine matters such as party programmes and greetings.

“But he is not authorised to put up sensitive material, that too using the image of the chief minister out-of-context, without permission from the in-charge Ranjib Sarma or from the chief minister’s office,” the newspaper quoted the state BJP chief as saying.

Ranjib Sarma is in charge of social media in the state.

Sarma on Wednesday said the police have filed a case in connection with the video based on a complaint by the Congress, PTI reported. He said that a BJP worker had also filed a complaint on the same subject.

Sarma told reporters that he and the BJP do not support anything that goes against Assamese Muslims.

“We are not against Assamese Muslims but against Bangladeshi Muslims, Miya Muslims,” the news agency quoted the chief minister as saying. “That photograph [in the video] should have made the difference [clear] between Bangladeshi and Indian Muslims.”

In Assam, “Miya” is a derogatory word used to refer to undocumented immigrants and is exclusively directed at Muslims of Bengali origin. They are often accused of being undocumented migrants from Bangladesh.

Once a pejorative in Assam, from the common use of the honorific “Miya” among South Asian Muslims, the term has now been reappropriated by the community as a self-descriptor to refer to Muslims who migrated to Assam from Bengal during the colonial era.