A list. Two columns. A clear declaration of what Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma considers forgivable — and what he considers unforgivable. In a post on X on Saturday, 24 October 2026, Sarma laid out his government's stated enforcement priorities in blunt, unambiguous terms that left little room for interpretation.

The post sorts offences into two categories. On one side — things Assam 'may forgive': genuine parking mistakes, minor public nuisance, and plausible traffic violations. On the other — a zero-tolerance list: crimes against women, encroachment of land and illegal infiltration, what Sarma terms 'Love Jihad', child marriage, and heinous crimes. The framing is deliberate. The message is political, and it is loud.

The zero-tolerance list and what drives it

Each item on Sarma's 'will never forgive' list maps directly onto an active enforcement drive his government has pursued since taking office in 2021. Assam has conducted some of the country's most aggressive crackdowns on child marriage, with thousands of arrests across multiple statewide operations. Campaigns against crimes targeting women have similarly been a recurring feature of the state's law-enforcement calendar.

Land encroachment and illegal infiltration occupy a distinct political register. The Assam Accord of 1985 — signed between the central government and Assam's agitation leaders — established the framework for detecting and deporting illegal immigrants who entered after 1971. Decades later, the National Register of Citizens (NRC), finalised in 2019, attempted to put a number to the problem. The question of who belongs in Assam and who does not has never left the state's political centre.

Infiltration, land, and a long-running state narrative

BJP governments in Assam have consistently linked illegal infiltration — primarily from Bangladesh — with land loss among indigenous communities and broader demographic change. That argument predates Sarma's tenure; it has shaped Assam's politics for four decades. His post compresses that entire political history into a single bullet point.

The inclusion of 'Love Jihad' — a term used by BJP leaders to describe alleged coercive conversions through interfaith relationships — places the post within a wider pattern of BJP-ruled states using similar language to frame cultural-security concerns. It is contested terminology, but it is not new to Assam's political vocabulary.

Governance signal or enforcement preview?

Posts like this one serve a dual function in Indian state politics: they are simultaneously a governance signal to the administration and a political message to the electorate. By explicitly distinguishing petty infractions from what he frames as structural threats — infiltration, land grab, violence against women — Sarma is telling both his police machinery and his voters where the needle sits.

Assam's assembly and enforcement calendar will reveal whether fresh legislation or new eviction or anti-infiltration operations follow. For now, the chief minister has drawn the lines himself — in public, on record, with no ambiguity.

In Assam's politics, the list is the policy.