India’s top court takes up plea over BJP’s AI-generated Islamophobic video

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — India’s Supreme Court has issued notice to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after its Assam unit released an artificial intelligence–generated video portraying Muslims as “taking over” the state if the party lost power — an episode that lays bare how Islamophobia has become central to India’s political messaging.

Assam, a multi-ethnic state in India’s far northeast bordering Bangladesh, has long been the epicenter of the BJP’s anti-Muslim politics. The region has a sizable Bengali-speaking Muslim population, many of whom have lived there for generations but are routinely branded by Hindu nationalist groups as “illegal infiltrators” from Bangladesh. 

The video revives that rhetoric through digital propaganda, warning of an imagined Muslim domination if the BJP is defeated.

The video, titled “Assam without BJP,” was released on the official X (formerly Twitter) handle of the BJP’s Assam unit on September 15. It shows Muslims dominating tea gardens, airports, and other public spaces, implying that beef consumption would be legalized and Hindu cultural identity erased under opposition rule. The caption warned voters: “We can’t let this dream of Paijan be true. Choose to vote carefully.”

The term “Paijan” has been used as a slur by BJP leaders to mock opposition Congress politician Gaurav Gogoi. The state’s chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, previously accused Gogoi of having “links with Pakistan’s ISI,” a claim widely criticized as part of the BJP’s strategy to portray Muslim or opposition-aligned figures as foreign or anti-national.

Gogoi responded to the video saying, “The words, actions, and images produced by the BJP IT cell do not have the strength to scratch the surface of Assamese society,” calling it an insult to Assam’s pluralism.

The Supreme Court’s notice, issued by Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, follows a petition seeking removal of the video and prosecution of those responsible. The petition argues that the post violates India’s secular constitution and misuses emerging technology to inflame communal tensions. The case is scheduled for hearing on October 28.

The opposition Congress party, which also lodged a police complaint, alleged that the BJP’s video aimed to discredit its leaders Rahul Gandhi and Gaurav Gogoi while promoting anti-Muslim hatred by exaggerating the state’s Muslim population to 90 percent. 

The complaint names BJP state president Dilip Saikia and members of the party’s social media team, accusing them of “criminal conspiracy, abetment, and promoting enmity between religious groups.”

Assam Information Minister and senior BJP leader Pijush Hazarika defended the video, accusing Congress of attempting to “intimidate those who speak against illegal infiltrators and demographic changes.”

Congress’s media department chairperson Bedabrat Bora, who filed the complaint, said the video “promotes fear and hatred against Muslims and misrepresents India’s constitutional values.” He added that the BJP’s campaign “reduces Assam’s diversity to a communal caricature, portraying its own citizens as invaders.”

Analysts say the controversy underscores a broader project: the BJP’s effort to portray Indian Muslims as demographic threats and cultural outsiders. 

From the 2019 citizenship law that excluded Muslim refugees to state-sanctioned demolition drives, the party’s policies and propaganda share a single theme — that the survival of Hindu India depends on curbing Muslim presence.