The BJP and its allies on Friday hit out at the Congress after the opposition party's Bihar unit posted on social media an AI-generated video depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his late mother, calling it "shameful" and wondering how low it will stoop to target the Prime Minister.
The video portrayed PM Modi's mother, Heeraben Modi, criticising him for his politics.
"Is this the level the Congress party has stooped to? Making memes of our prime minister's late mother, that too of such a cheap standard. How low will the Congress fall?" senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
"It's shameful... We will make it a very big issue across the country," the Patna Sahib MP charged.
The Congress, however, said no disrespect was shown to the Prime Minister or his mother.
"What is their objection? Just because a mother is trying to educate the son to do something right, where is it disrespectful, neither to the mother, whom we respect dearly, nor to the son," Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said.
Will Congress' AI video of PM's mother attract legal punishment?
Cyber expert Pawan Duggal said that there is no specific law dedicated to Artificial Intelligence, but making such AI videos and presenting a negative image of someone through them is a legal offense.
Mr Duggal said legal action can be taken against such AI-generated deep fake videos under the IT Act 2000 and the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023.
This is a kind of electronic forgery, said the expert. A case can be registered against the accused for making such videos or doing so through deep fake technology, he added.
Under Section 66D of the IT Act 2000, there is a provision of 3 years' imprisonment and fine. However, this is a bailable offence.
At the same time, a case can also be made under Section 66C of the IT Act. This section says that if a person steals someone's identity and takes unfair advantage by using it in a wrong way, then it is a cyber crime. Under this too, there is a provision of 3 years' imprisonment.
Damaging someone's reputation and spreading propaganda against him by misusing his image is also a kind of defamation, said the expert, adding this can create a wrong impression about that person in the minds of the general public.
This falls under the category of crime under BNS, he said.
Creating and posting such AI videos without anyone's consent, said Mr Duggal, can land the person in jail. The police can file an FIR against the person and the criminal court can pronounce punishment in such cases, he added.
Earlier, PM Modi's late mother was allegedly "abused" by a man from the stage set up for the 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' organised by the Congress and RJD in Bihar's Darbhanga district last month.
