‘Part of election is fought in Supreme Court’: CJI Surya Kant on plea against Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma’s ‘shooting’ video

The CPI(M) plea alleged that Sarma’s “speeches target, terrorise, and instigate hostility and overt violence against the Muslim community residing in the State of Assam.” “His statements, viewed cumulatively, constitute ex facie hate speech inasmuch as they degrade and demean a minority, propagate false and stigmatising stereotypes, incite social and economic boycott, and encourage conditions of exclusion and violence against the said community.”

The plea also referred to a video allegedly “posted on February 7, 2026, from the official handle of the Bharatiya Janata Party (“BJP”), Assam on X (formerly Twitter), namely, ‘BJP Assam Pradesh’ (@BJP4Assam)” which it alleged, “serves to reinforce and amplify a climate of hostility, exclusion, and intimidation directed against the minority community.”

Terming that his conduct is in “blatant derogation of the oath of office taken…under the Constitution of India,” the plea contented that Sarma’s “statements deliberately obfuscate the distinction between illegal immigrants and Bengali-speaking Muslims in general by using slurs like “miya”, which is a “generic pejorative used in relation to Muslims.”

“Even assuming, without admitting, that the purported objective of Respondent No. 4 is to target illegal immigration, the Constitution mandates that any such concern be addressed strictly in accordance with statutory procedure—now governed by immigration and foreigners legislation—and not through extra-legal calls for social ostracism of an entire religiously identifiable population, and calls for vigilante violence against them,” the plea added.

“Such statements, emanating from the highest executive authority in the State, possess a direct and foreseeable consequence of legitimising collective boycott, systemic discrimination, and communal hostility and even violence against any person or group otherwise entitled to equal protection of law under the Constitution,” the plea also said.

“It is relevant to note that the repercussions of these exhortations are not merely speculative but have begun to manifest in reported instances of everyday economic and social exclusion”.