With barely a few months to go for state elections, Assam BJP took its communal politics to a new extreme on February 7 when they shared a video on X that showed chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma symbolically shooting Muslims.
The 18-second clip contained what looked like real-life footage of Sarma wielding an air rifle, which is interspersed with artificially generated images of two individuals in skullcaps and beards, representing the Muslim community, being shot at. The post was captioned "Point blank shot."
https://vimeo.com/1162971458?fl=pl&fe=sh
The video, which is the latest in line of a series of vicious anti-Muslim propaganda posts shared by Assam BJP, immediately drew widespread condemnation. As of now, it is no longer available on the platform. It is not clear whether the party itself took it down or the platform, i.e., X, did it. Before it disappeared from the platform, the video amassed over 1 million videos.
ALSO READ: ECI turns a blind eye to rabidly communal speeches by Himanta Biswa Sarma
Apart from the 'shooting', the clip also had an AI-generated image of Himanta Biswa Sarma fashioned as a Western hero, alongside text invoking "jaati, maati, bheti," demanding an "infiltrator-free Assam," and promising "no mercy" for Bangladeshis.
The spectre of the "illegal Bangladeshi" has been a recurring trope in Assam's politics, portrayed as an existential danger to the indigenous people of Assam. In the majoritarian discourse, they stand as a threat to jaati (ethnicity), maati (land), and bheti (hearth or homeland) and are frequently evoked by Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in his speeches and addresses to the media.
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Ever since the SIR exercise began in Assam and West Bengal, the vilification of Bengali Muslims in Assam's political discourse has found new momentum. Sarma recently revealed how his state had 'pushed back' more than 2,000 undocumented migrants into Bangladesh, within a space of three months. Late last month, the chief minister launched a communal tirade targeting "Miya Muslims", which sparked an outrage across the country.
"Himanta Biswa Sarma and the BJP are directly against the Miya," the Assam chief minister proclaimed during a conversation with journalists on January 27. During the three-minute exchange, Sarma urged the people of his state to "give the Miya trouble" and "practise the politics of polarization". "If you take a rickshaw and the fare is Rs 5, give Rs 4. Only if they suffer will they leave Assam," the chief minister said.
After a police complaint had been filed by activist Harsh Mander against Sarma at Hauz Khas police station in Delhi, Sarma tried to defend his hateful remarks stating that he was referring to illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
ALSO READ: Himanta's communal tirade against Miya Muslims: Police complaint filed, defiant Assam CM cites SC ruling
In May last year, the Himanta-led Cabinet brought in a scheme to give gun licenses to 'indigenous people' living in Muslim-majority areas. Justifying the move, Sarma said, "A gun is essential. Without a gun, how will you live in places like South Salmara and Mankachar? You will understand when you go there…"
About 95% of the population in the Salmara-Mankachar district are Muslims.
Sarma's vituperative speeches have been complemented by social media posts by the state unit of the BJP. The 'shot point blank' video is not the only example of that. Take, for example, the state-sanctioned normalisation of derogatory terms, like "paaijan", a portmanteau of "Pakistan" and "bhaijaan" that is regularly used to refer to Opposition leader and Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi.
On September 15, Assam BJP shared a video on X, which sought to offer a glimpse of "Assam without BJP". The clip, which depicted Muslim "infiltrators" entering the state and acquiring government land, and also showed men in skull caps, beards and lungis chopping beef by the roadside and Muslim men and burqa-clad women crowding the state's tea estates and public spaces, sparked massive outrage and as eventually removed from the platform.
The 31-second ad ended with the warning that without the BJP, Assam would have a 90% Muslim population. "Choose your vote carefully," it said. The caption read, "We can't let this dream of Paaijaan to be true!!"sparked massive outrage across the country.
ALSO READ: Scrolling through Assam BJP's X handle: An exhibition of hate, xenophobia & anti-Muslim propaganda
Backlash from Opposition Leaders, Journalists
The official X handle of Indian National Congress (@INCIndia) criticized the communal video, noting that it amounted to a call for "mass violence and genocide".
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) remarked that deleting the video dids not absolve Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the hatred and violence unleashed by elected ministers of his party.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also called out the video, urging the judiciary to take action.
The controversial video received censure from journalists like Suhasini Halder and Rajdeep Sardesai, among others.
Screenshots below:
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AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on February 9 filed a police complaint against Sarma for "his deliberate and malicious acts of outraging the religious feelings of Muslims, promoting enmity between two religious communities...".
Asked for his response to the complaint, the Assam chief minister told reporters that he did not know anything about any video, though he was ready to go to jail.
Question Mark over X's Policy on Hateful Content
The traction received by the video highlighted X's failure to curb content that violated its own platform policies, yet again.
Despite being in clear violation of several of X's community rules and policies, the video remained live on the platform for long enough for it to have amassed more than 1 million views, and thousands of re-shares.
The video, in particular, transgresses several by-laws under the 'Safety and Cybercrime' section of X's community rules and policies, such as:
- The violent and hateful entities policy,
- Hateful conduct,
- Violent speech policy,
- Abuse and harassment.
It is still not clear whether X took down the video or it was removed by the handle (BJP Assam Pradesh) itself.
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