Congress frustrated on being rejected by public: Piyush Goyal on AI video row

New Delhi: An AI-imagined video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mother Heeraben, posted on social media by the Bihar unit of Congress has created a furore, with several senior BJP leaders and ministers condemning it.

Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal said that the Congress was “frustrated” after being “repeatedly rejected” by the public. “... Congress, with a distorted mentality, is now set on creating new records of baseness every day,” he said on X.

The video, which comes days after some workers purportedly of the Congress-RJD were accused of hurling abuses at the prime minister during a rally, shows the prime minister being chided by his mother in a dream. It shows the PM’s mother telling him that in the name of politics, she was made to stand in a line during demonetisation, and he took a video of washing her feet. “Now in Bihar, you are using my name to win elections. How low will you fall,” she is heard speaking in the imagined video. The Bihar Congress unit later launched an inquiry into the matter.

Responding to the video, union minister of textiles Giriraj Singh said that history has been “witness” to Jawaharlal Nehru’s relationship with Edwina Mountbatten. “History is witness that in the decisive moments of power, Nehru remained entangled more in the infatuation with Edwina Mountbatten than in the interest of the country. When India needed strong leadership, he kept surrendering repeatedly, bound by personal attachment. Personal relationships crushed national interests,” he wrote on X in response to the video.

BJP MP Radha Mohan Das Agrawal said the video was a “new low” in politics. “Prime Minister Modi has always kept politics separate from family life. It is painful that the Congress first abused the prime minister’s mother and is now using deepfake technology to mislead the country and insult all mothers,” he said.