Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday launched a broadside against Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over a video posted by the BJP showing Sarma taking a “point-blank shot” at two individuals identified as minorities.During a rally at Telangana’s Zaheerabad, Owaisi accused the Assam chief minister of spreading hate against the Muslim community and added that the AIMIM would soon lodge a police complaint over the video.“If you think that communalism has ended, remember, no matter who comes to power, the poison of communalism persists. And the remedy, the antidote for the poison of communalism, is that you make the representatives of the Majlis successful. You see that in the country, the chief minister of Assam makes a video where he has a gun in his hand. And he fires a bullet. The bullet hits a person wearing a beard and a cap,” Owaisi said.“Tell me, he is the chief minister of Assam from the BJP. He posts a video from the BJP’s social media. Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen strongly condemns that video. And Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, God willing, will also file a complaint with the police against it, so that a case can be registered against the chief minister of Assam. They are working to spread religious hatred against Muslims,” he added.Also read | ‘I want to give you Rs 2 in alms’: Owaisi hits out at Himanta Sarma over ‘trouble Miya Muslims’ remarkThis comes after the BJP Assam unit posted a video on X showing Sarma purportedly aiming a rifle at two people, one wearing a skull cap and another with a beard. The video was deleted after receiving backlash.Earlier, Owaisi had slammed Sarma over his controversial remarks on “troubling Miya Muslims”, calling them unconstitutional and divisive.Owaisi mocked the chief minister, saying, “I want to give you Rs 2 as alms,” and accused him of reducing constitutional governance to prejudice and intimidation. In a lengthy response, Owaisi said India’s Constitution guarantees equality and non-discrimination, regardless of religion or community.“The Constitution says all are equal. No discrimination should be done, whether it is a chief minister or anyone else,” he said.Owaisi alleged that Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam were being scapegoated for issues ranging from migration to rising prices.“If vegetable prices increase in Assam, Miya Muslims are blamed. If someone wants to vote, they are told to go to Bangladesh,” he said, adding that such rhetoric amounted to targeting a community for political gain.The AIMIM leader’s remarks came after Sarma made statements encouraging action against “Miya Muslims” in Assam.Sarma said, “Trouble the Miya Muslims by any means. If they face trouble, they will go from Assam… We are directly against the Miya Muslims. We are not hiding anything.”The comments triggered a political storm in the election-bound northeastern state, with opposition parties accusing the BJP of resorting to communal polarisation to consolidate votes.The BJP, however, has long maintained that its focus in Assam is on addressing illegal immigration and protecting indigenous rights. Bengali-speaking Muslims have frequently been labelled “illegal infiltrators” in political discourse, an issue that has remained central to Assam’s electoral politics.
