The Patna High Court on Wednesday directed the Congress to immediately remove a 36-second AI-generated video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his late mother, Heeraben Modi, from all social media platforms, citing violations of privacy and dignity rights.
An interim order was issued by a Bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice P B Bajanthri and Justice Alok Kumar Sinha during the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation submitted by Vivekanand Singh on September 15. The court explicitly instructed Meta Platforms (Facebook), Google India (YouTube), and X (Twitter) India to stop the distribution of the video content.
The bench also ordered that notices be sent to INC leader Rahul Gandhi, the president of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee, and all social media platforms named as respondents in the PIL, instructing them to submit their responses regarding the issue.
The controversy began after the Bihar Congress posted an AI-generated video on September 10, depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi dreaming about his late mother, who appears to criticise him for his politics in poll-bound Bihar. Shared on X with the caption, “Sahab ke sapno mein aayi maa. Dekhiye rochak samvaad” (Mother came in the sahab’s dream. Watch an interesting interaction between them), the clip sparked widespread debate.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, a prominent leader of the BJP, said, “Is this the level Congress has stooped to? Making memes of our PM's late mother, that too of such a cheap standard. How low will Congress fall? It’s shameful. We will make it a very big issue across the country.”