‘Explicitly promotes fear, hatred’ – Congress files complaint against BJP’s ‘polarising’ AI video

“The matter is being enquired into, but an official FIR has not been registered against the complaint,” he said.

This comes following a video posted by the handle ‘BJP Assam Pradesh’ late Monday. Underneath the text ‘Assam without BJP’, a series of AI-generated images appear, including of a man in a skull cap cutting meat by the road that is labelled ‘beef legalization, of Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi standing in front of the flag of Pakistan, of men in skullcaps and women in burqas and hijabs at different locations such as tea gardens, the airport, an amusement park, a stadium in Guwahati, the Ahom dynasty monument Rang Ghar, and walking across a border fence.

The video, labelled ‘illegal immigrants’, ends with a text saying ‘90% Muslim population’, followed by ‘Choose your vote carefully’.

This video had led to a row. On Thursday, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee media department chairman Bedabrata Bora filed a complaint at the Dispur police station.

“The video is captioned and narrated in a manner that explicitly promotes fear and hatred against Muslims, stating that non-BJP rule would lead to ‘Islamic dominance’ and the subjugation of Hindus and indigenous communities,” the complaint says. “It misrepresents the constitutional values of India and secular policies of a constitutionally elected government as anti-Hindu conspiracies using inflammatory language and visuals of Rang Ghar, Guwahati Airport being overshadowed by people belonging to Muslim community. This content is not mere political rhetoric, but a deliberate fabrication designed to incite political discord.”

It also alleges that the video “misrepresents” Gaurav Gogoi’s “religion and personal beliefs for narrow political gains, hurting his religious sentiments and those of Hindu Congress workers across Assam”.

It goes on to seek an FIR registered for abetment, promoting enmity between different groups, deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings, criminal intimidation, statement conducing to public mischief, and imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration. It has also sought directions to X to take down the post.

The post drew criticism from the BJP’s political opponents at the national level. The BJP has responded to this by calling the post a “picturisation of a fact” of “demographic change in Assam” and “the threat of illegal immigration.”