Pinarayi lashes out at Assam CM over video targeting Muslims

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over a video posted on Assam BJP’s official social media accounts that showed Mr. Sarma appearing to shoot at framed photographs of Muslims on a wall bearing the words “No mercy.” Mr. Vijayan said in a social media post that the video is a direct incitement of violence against Muslims.

“Such nefarious attempts to normalise hate for electoral gains are an affront to our Constitution. The silence of the BJP national leadership confirms their complicity in this divisive politics. Secular and democratic forces must unite to resist this communal hate mongering and protect the pluralist soul of India,” he said. He alleged that Mr. Sarma is targeting majority votes in a State which is on the threshold of elections.

“How can a person who calls for genocide against Muslim minorities lead a State in a secular nation? The RSS-led BJP has no interest or inclination to stop the Assam Chief Minister, who says that his job is to trouble the Muslims and that he will do everything possible to make life difficult for them. The fact is that Mr. Sarma has openly said what the BJP is reluctant to say. Himanta Biswa Sarma is a leader whom the Congress contributed to the BJP. He was once the face of the Assam Congress and a Minister who handled important portfolios. After leaving the Congress and joining the BJP in 2015, he is the one who has been leading all the communal manoeuvres of the BJP in north east India,” said Mr. Vijayan.