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Assam

When Cartoons Died and Deepfakes Took Over: Assam’s Troubling AI Turn

As Assam heads towards the 2026 Assembly elections, political campaigning in the state is entering a perilous phase, with artificial intelligence being deployed not as a tool for innovation but as an instrument of distortion and manipulation

  • Prasenjit Deb

Prasenjit Deb

When Cartoons Died and Deepfakes Took Over: Assam’s Troubling AI Turn

While Assam is racing towards the next Assembly elections in 2026, politics within the state is set to enter a dangerous new era—one that involves the use of artificial intelligence not for innovation but for distortion. Politics is no longer a task that involves mere speeches and ground mobilization.

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They are being fought through deepfakes, fabricated news bulletins and algorithm-driven fear, blurring the boundary between reality and propaganda. The controversy now engulfing Assam is not about one viral clip or one party’s misstep. It is about how AI is being normalised as an instrument to mislead voters, communalise public discourse and rewrite demographic reality in a state already scarred by decades of migration anxieties and identity politics. 

When Deepfakes Go Viral  

A trend emerged with a video produced using AI showing Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma performing exemplary classical dance moves. While harmless and amusing, it is here that voters were reminded—the subliminal reminder perhaps—of how authenticity in the visual element is no longer possible.

Soon after, darker uses of the technology followed.

BJP’s Dystopian AI Campaign

In September 2025, ahead of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) elections, the Assam BJP unit’s official X handle released a series of AI-generated videos, the most prominent titled “Assam Without BJP.” The imagery was stark and provocative. It projected a future where Muslims allegedly dominate every sphere of life—occupying airports, tea estates and public spaces, running public beef stalls, and transforming Assam’s cultural landmarks into Islamic sites.

The video flashed the alarming claim of a “90% Muslim population” and urged voters to “choose your vote carefully.” Congress leaders Gaurav Gogoi and Rahul Gandhi were shown alongside Pakistan’s flag, a visual insinuation designed to suggest an unholy alliance between opposition politics and anti-national forces.

In one sweeping narrative, Assam’s complex history of migration, documentation and identity was reduced to a crude binary: BJP equals safety; Congress equals Muslim domination and cultural erasure. The intent was unmistakable—to construct fear, vilify an entire community, and portray the Congress leadership as collaborators in an imagined downfall of the state. 

Congress Strikes Back—and the Spiral Deepens

Offended and outraged, Congress workers retaliated with their own AI-generated content. One such video mimicked a television quiz show branding Himanta Biswa Sarma as India’s “most corrupt” chief minister.

The Assam CID arrested three Congress leaders in November 2025, under cybercrime laws, for sharing the deepfake image, although they managed to obtain bail shortly afterwards. This development suggested larger scales, and warnings came from the Chief Minister about anticipated attacks by AI on his image before the election.

That was followed by a typical digital escalation—deepfake versus deepfake—pushing Assam’s politics further away from fact and closer to outrage.

The Fake Aaj Tak Bulletin 

Adding another layer to the misinformation ecosystem was a video purporting to be a bulletin from Hindi news channel Aaj Tak. In the clip, anchor Rajeev Dhoundiyal is shown reporting on a “confidential intelligence report” issuing a red alert for the BJP in Assam, warning of heavy electoral losses and a possible leadership change before the elections. The claims were explosive—and entirely false. A verification exercise found no credible reporting on such an intelligence document. Aaj Tak’s official platforms carried no such bulletin. More tellingly, the lip syntax of the anchor did not sync with the audio, which is a flaw typically seen in artificial intelligence clips. The video clip is processed using the Deepfake-O-Meter tool to ascertain if the content is produced via artificial intelligence.

This episode also brought home the ease with which AI can mimic journalistic expertise by presenting false news as believable "breaking news."

Congress Takes the Legal Route 

Outraged by what it described as communal propaganda, the Assam Congress lodged a formal complaint at Dispur Police Station. The FIR, filed by APCC Media Department chairman Bedabrata Bora, named Assam BJP president Dilip Saikia, state social media convener Shaktidhar Deka, and other unnamed members of the party’s digital wing. The charges included criminal conspiracy, incitement to communal disturbances, promoting enmity between groups, and violations of the Model Code of Conduct.

The Congress approached the State Election Commission as well, demanding an immediate removal of these videos, confiscation of devices from the IT cell of the BJP, and a forensic analysis under the Information Technology Act of 2000.

Leaders of Congress, including Gaurav Gogoi, termed the campaign as cheap propaganda, claiming that such imagery would never have the power to break Assamese society.

Other opposition voices echoed the concern. The AIUDF warned against the communalisation of Assam’s electoral space. AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi termed the videos “disgusting,” arguing that they portrayed the mere presence of Muslims as a political problem. Civil society groups flagged the danger of reopening wounds in a state shaped by the Assam Accord, the NRC exercise and decades of migration-related conflict. BJP’s Defence—and Its Contradictions The BJP defended the videos by arguing that they highlighted the threat of illegal immigration altering Assam’s demography. State Information Minister Pijush Hazarika accused the Congress of crying “Islamophobia” to protect its vote bank.
The Congress then moved the State Election Commission, demanding immediate removal of these videos and seizing of gadgets from the BJP's IT cell, along with a forensic investigation under the IT Act, 2000.

The campaign was dismissed as cheap propaganda by Congress leaders, with Gaurav Gogoi himself reportedly saying that the imagery lacked the strength to fracture Assamese society.

Other voices of opposition resounded the worry. The AIUDF warned against the communalisation of Assam’s electoral space. AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi termed the videos “disgusting,” arguing that they portrayed the mere presence of Muslims as a political problem. Civil society groups flagged the danger of reopening wounds in a state shaped by the Assam Accord, the NRC exercise and decades of migration-related conflict.

BJP’s Defence—and Its Contradictions

The BJP defended the videos by arguing that they highlighted the threat of illegal immigration altering Assam’s demography. State Information Minister Pijush Hazarika accused the Congress of crying “Islamophobia” to protect its vote bank. Yet the visuals suggest something altogether different. If it was a question of undocumented migration, why were Muslims-through skullcaps, hijabs and Islamic symbols-the overwhelming focus? Why were other communities who suffered equally from issues of documentation rendered invisible?

Facts vs Fabrication 

The central claim of the video—that Assam could become “90% Muslim”—collapses under scrutiny. According to the 2011 Census, Muslims constitute 34.22% of Assam’s population. Even accounting for growth, the figure bears no resemblance to the apocalyptic projection shown. The imagery of Muslims “taking over” airports, tea estates and heritage sites finds no basis in evidence.

While debates on undocumented migration are legitimate, there is no data to suggest any community has seized public institutions in the manner depicted. The NRC experience has also been selectively raised. Of the 1.9 million left out in the cut-off list of the final draft of the NRC, 7 lakh are Muslims, 5 lakh Bengali Hindus, 2 lakh Assamese Hindus, and 1.5 lakh Gorkhas. Documentation related issues persist irrespective of the community, but the narrative of AI focuses on the Muslim community alone.

Suggestions about ties between Congress leaders and Pakistan are pictorial inferences, not actual fact. Statements regarding beef consumption and cultural effacement disregard the food habits which Assam has practised right from proclaiming Assamese culture.

The chasm between claim and truth lays exposed the real agenda behind these videos—not political discourse but demographically driven fear-mongering aided and abetted by AI.

How AI Increases the Dangers

Unlike crude photo manipulation, AI-generated visuals are immersive and hyper-realistic. Crowded mosques in airports or skull-capped men at cultural monuments can be mistaken for documentary evidence by unsuspecting viewers. In Assam, where migration anxieties already run deep, this blurring of fiction and fact is especially combustible.

cartoon

What has quietly disappeared in this transition is an older, healthier form of political critique: the political cartoon. For decades, cartoons served as sharp but recognisable commentary—exaggerated, symbolic and openly interpretative. They mocked power, questioned authority and highlighted social contradictions without pretending to be literal truth. A cartoon of a leader was never mistaken for reality; its strength lay precisely in its obvious satire.

AI propaganda has replaced caricature with counterfeit realism. Where cartoons once provoked reflection and debate, deepfakes seek to deceive. The shift is not cosmetic; it is ethical. Satire invited citizens to think. AI deepfakes invite them to believe.

This erosion matters because cartoons, even when partisan, operated within an understood moral contract: exaggeration without impersonation. AI breaks that contract. It forges voices, faces and contexts, collapsing the distinction between critique and fabrication. In doing so, it strips political communication of accountability.

Legally, the content raises serious questions under criminal law and election regulations that prohibit hate speech and communal appeals. Ethically, it poses an even larger challenge: should technology be allowed to normalise deception and fear as an electoral strategy?

Assam’s Fragile Social Fabric

Documented and undocumented migration, politics of identity and citizenship verification under the Assam Accord, NRC, and Foreigners’ Tribunals are challenges that Assam has faced for decades. Trust and inclusion are already being destroyed by such initiatives. Bringing artificially amplified Muslim domination narratives into this context is likely to make coexistence itself become the zero-sum game of sorts.

"The danger is not only found in the polarization of elections, but also in the degradation of social cohesion."

A Warning Beyond Assam

The use of AI for maligned purposes in politics in Assam is an eye-opener for the entire nation of India. Deepfakes and doctored stories can soon become the new ways of election campaigning, and debate may become replaced by dishonesty and truth by terror.

The onus is not entirely on the police and Election Commission. The political parties, media channels, civil society, and citizens too need to refuse this slide into communalism driven by algorithms and technology.

Technology is inevitable in politics today. Weaponized disinformation is certainly not. Assam, with its complex history and fragile peace, is a place where politics can and must address real challenges without distilling entire communities into threat. The choice is stark in the Indian republic between technology that can empty truth or lines drawn while fear can become the ultimate campaign manager.

Also Read: ‘Pakistani Agents’ Cannot Budge ‘New’ Assam: CM Sarma Takes Dig at Gaurav Gogoi

Gaurav Gogoi Himanta Biswa Sarma
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