Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has slammed the Opposition before the start of the monsoon session of the state legislature, claiming that the memorandum submitted by the opposition parties appears to have been prepared using artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT.
Addressing a press conference on the eve of the three-week monsoon session on Sunday, Fadnavis criticized the Opposition for boycotting the usual pre-session tea meeting and submitting a six-page memorandum outlining its concerns instead.
Read also| Mahajan seeks Fadnavis’s intervention in the mutant images controversy
“To be honest, even today, our opposition has boycotted the traditional tea ceremony. In fact, if they had come for the discussion, various issues would have been discussed and an exchange of ideas would have taken place,” Fadnavis said.
Referring to the memorandum submitted by the opposition leaders, the Prime Minister noted that its contents appear to have been generated using artificial intelligence.
“When I saw this message, I had a slight doubt, so I checked. Then I realized that this message was also prepared using ChatGPT. Using AI… It now seems that even for preparing messages, they have run out of topics, creativity or even basic understanding of the issues. So, they are using AI,” he said.
However, the Prime Minister added on a lighter note that it was encouraging to see the opposition embracing technology. “Since the next era belongs to artificial intelligence, it is commendable that the opposition has started using it now. I congratulate them on that,” he said.
The remarks came as political parties brace for what is expected to be a monsoon storm, with the opposition likely to raise issues related to farmers, governance and public welfare schemes.
Fadnavis further alleged that the Opposition continued to reiterate issues that had already been discussed and addressed by the government. According to him, several paragraphs in the latest memorandum were identical to those submitted in previous years.
The Chief Minister also addressed concerns related to the state’s farm loan waiver programme, stressing that loan waivers are not political tools but measures aimed at helping farmers regain access to institutional credit. He said that nearly 56,000 farmers will benefit from the waiver package worth approx $36,585 crore, making it the largest initiative of its kind undertaken in the state.
Speaking about the delayed monsoon and emerging concerns over El Niño conditions, Fadnavis said Maharashtra is facing a difficult situation, with rainfall levels much lower than normal in all districts. Rainfall in Vidarbha was 80 per cent below average, while central Maharashtra and Konkan recorded a deficit of 83 per cent and 86 per cent, respectively, he noted.
He urged farmers to follow official guidelines and not start planting until after sufficient rains. The Prime Minister also said the government is closely monitoring water storage levels and has imposed restrictions on some agricultural water withdrawals to protect drinking water supplies in the event of prolonged delays in monsoon rains.
The monsoon session of the Maharashtra legislature is scheduled to begin on June 22.
