Amid the outrage in Odisha after a purported video of BJD leader VK Pandian controlling the hand movement of Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik went viral, BJP National Vice President Baijayant Panda on Wednesday expressed deep dissatisfaction over the 'elder abuse' of the CM.
“The public spectacle of elder abuse of a CM by his puppet master cannot be whitewashed by releasing yet another AI-generated Deepfake video claiming that all is well. To further his own ambition, this puppeteer has manipulated the CM into saying & doing things he never would on his own,” the BJP VP tweeted.
He also appealed to people to come together and say 'bye bye to the puppeteer' for allegedly manhandling the sitting CM and wrote, “The on-stage physical manipulation and manhandling of the CM by this puppeteer was seen by thousands with their own eyes, and many more on live television.”
“Odisha has had enough of being told that black is white and white is black. Now it's time to say bye bye to the puppeteer,” Panda concluded.
Earlier, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma also launched a scathing attack on Pandian and said, “This is a deeply distressing video. Shri VK Pandian ji is even controlling the hand movements of Naveen Babu. I shudder to imagine the level of control a retired ex-bureaucrat from Tamil Nadu is currently exercising over the future of Odisha!”
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In response to BJP, CM Naveen Patnaik later released a video message and said, “I believe, the BJP which is known to make non-issues as issues is discussing my hands. This will certainly not work.”