Congress’ Assam Bachao campaign turns into Taiwan Bachao campaign

Congress party members never miss a chance to embarrass themselves. In the heat of the election campaign in the poll-bound state of Assam, the Congress party’s social media team has made a blunder by posting two photos of tea gardens in Taiwan on their verified social media account, instead of pictures of the tea gardens from Assam.

Assam’s finance minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma took a jibe at the Congress claiming, “Congress leaders can’t even recognize Assam?” He tweeted, “Official Congress campaign page is using a photo of tea garden from Taiwan to say ‘Assam Bachao’. Congress leaders can’t even recognise Assam? This is an insult of Assam and Tea Garden workers of our state.”

Sarma’s attack on the Congress party did not just stop there. In another tweet, he shared pictures from the ‘Assam Bachao’ page, in which the party failed to differentiate between the tea workers of Assam and Taiwan.

“First Congress couldn’t identify Assam, now Congress can’t even recognize Assamese people. This is again a pic from Taiwan. Congress leaders have forgotten Assam. Let’s show @INCIndia how beautiful our land is,” Sarma added further.

However, the grand old party has rubbished these claims and accused the BJP of smearing their campaign in the poll-bound state. Congress leaders went to great lengths by threatening to drag this matter to the Election Commission.

Assam Congress leader Bobeeta Sharma said, “BJP is rattled. As people are connecting with the Congress and looking for progress to come back, the BJP, bereft of any issue to sell to people of Assam after their game of promises, is resorting to such false propaganda against us.” The Sharma leader added, “And if deliberately using, then it is unfortunate that a Minister is resorting to false propaganda. We are filing a complaint to EC.

On the other hand, India Today fact-checked the claim by Congress and discovered that both the pictures used by the party for its social media campaign are from Taiwan rather than Assam.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on her recent visit to Assam, rubbed shoulders with some tea garden workers and took pictures with them. While speaking at a rally, she promised to hike the daily wages of the tea workers up to Rs 365 to garner their votes because out of 126 constituencies in Assam, 42 seats (about one-third) are dominated by the tea workers’ community.

However, one must wonder how the people of Assam are going to take the grand old party seriously when the party cannot even recognise the people or the cultural heritage of the state.