Ahead of Assam’s assembly election, Himanta Biswa Sarma ramps up the hate

As Assam’s 2026 assembly election approaches, Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and chief minister of the Indian state, has been deploying rhetoric described by his political opponents – and not without reason – as “genocidal”. On 9 February, the Assam wing of the BJP posted on X a video edited to suggest Sarma shooting at two visibly Muslim men, while slogans such as “No mercy” and “Foreigner free Assam” played across the screen. That video was deleted after widespread criticism, but Sarma’s rhetoric in recent months has been in keeping with its incendiary messaging. On 27 January, at a press conference, Sarma said he encouraged “troubling Miyas” in order to drive them from Assam. “We are not hiding anything. We directly say that we are against Miyas.” he said, indirectly inciting social discrimination, including an informal social and economic boycott against Bengali Muslims.

Sarma has become a key political actor in Assam and across India’s Northeast for the BJP , and is often described as the party’s “key strategist” in the region. His words carry weight, particularly as the BJP is poised to dominate Assam once again after the assembly election, slated to start in March. When a journalist asked whether his government was polarising Assam during the 27 January press conference, Sarma’s response was alarming: “Assam is a polarised society”, he said, and “for the next thirty years, we have to practice politics of polarisation if you want to live.”