There is little that is surprising in Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s latest diatribe. Clearly, Sarma sees political benefit in amplifying polarising rhetoric ahead of the Assembly elections later this year. In effect, an elected CM, who has sworn to uphold the Constitution, is flaunting a bid to intervene, influence, the Special Revision of electoral rolls in Assam. In the past six months, the sanctity of the electoral roll has been at the centre of a contentious debate: Who gets in, who is asked to explain, who is deleted. Sarma’s exclusionary rhetoric goes against this accommodative stance.