By Manoj Anand
Copyright deccanchronicle
Guwahati: An Artificial Intelligence (AI)) generated video posted by the official handle of Assam BJP—claiming that “Assam would have been a Muslim majority state without the BJP” has triggered a major political controversy with opposition Congress threatening to file a police complaint on Thursday.The ruling BJP which posted it on Monday defended the video while reiterating the threat of illegal immigrants as realistic, the opposition Congress took offence to the video which showed Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi in the video.The Congress MP Mr Gogoi in his social media post said, “The words, actions and images produced by the BJP IT cell do not even have the strength to scratch the surface of Assamese society…The proud and great state of Assam deserves politicians who help the people of Assam reach new heights.”He further said, “We want to build a society of pilots, engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs, bankers and business owners. We want to see a bor (greater) Assam where hard work trumps hate, decency matters over hubris, democracy crushes autocracy, and everyone is treated with respect.”The Congress’s media department in a statement said that it would file an FIR against Assam BJP on Thursday for “posting a communal video on social media targeting our (state) president and party.”The video was released ahead of the September 22 election to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) , which runs administration in four Western Assam districts, with the tagline “We can’t let this dream of Paaijaan to be true”.It is significant that “Paijaan” is a term allegedly coined by the Assam BJP for Mr Gogoi, whom chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has been accusing of having close ties with Pakistan.A special investigation team (SIT) was formed to probe the Congress leader’s alleged links in Pakistan. The SIT recently submitted its report to Mr Sarma. However, its findings are yet to be released.Defending the Assam BJP’s video, cabinet minister Pijush Hazarika on Wednesday said that it wasn’t targeting all Muslims in Assam but showed a probable scenario of undocumented migrants (from Bangladesh) changing the state’s demography.“The video clearly spoke about the threat of illegal immigrants who are changing Assam’s demography — but instantly these “champions of secularism” screamed Islamophobia!,” he said in his social media post.“If, in their logic, talking about illegal immigrants = Islamophobia, then aren’t they themselves suggesting that all Muslims are illegal immigrants? Who’s the real Islamophobe here? Them or us?,” he added.
