Assam Congress files police complaint against BJP over controversial video of CM Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati: The Assam Congress on Tuesday filed a police complaint against the ruling BJP for circulating a controversial video of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on social media.

Party legislators Sibamoni Bora and Diganta Barman lodged the complaint at Dispur Police Station in Guwahati.

The Assam BJP had posted the video on its official social media handle on Saturday, which showed Sarma purportedly taking aim with a rifle and firing a shot at two people, one wearing a skull cap and the other with a beard, with "point-blank shot" as the caption.

The video was deleted after a massive political backlash.

Sarma had on Monday claimed ignorance of the video, even as state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi accused the CM of “inciting genocide” against Muslims through his videos, and urged the police to take suo motu cognisance.

The Congress, in its complaint, said the video depicted “Sarma symbolically firing at Muslims at point blank range”.

The opposition party claimed that the overlaid text in the video included phrases such as “foreigner free Assam” and “there is no forgiveness to Bangladeshis”.

It asserted that such phrases alluded to the “state’s Bengal-origin Muslims, often derogatorily labelled as ‘Miyas’ or ‘Bangladeshis’”.

“The aforesaid content targeting a particular community is highly provocative and communal, which will definitely lead (to) social disharmony amongst the people,” the Congress MLAs said in the complaint.

On Monday, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi had lodged a complaint with the Hyderabad Police, seeking criminal action against the Assam CM over the now-deleted video.

Reacting to it, Sarma had said he was not aware of such a video and added, "If any case has been filed against me, arrest me. I don't have any objection. I will be prepared to go to jail. I will always stick to my words. I am opposed to Bangladeshi infiltrators and will always remain so.”