Amit Shah’s Deepfake Video Brainchild of Rahul Gandhi: BJP Leader Gaurav Bhatia

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gaurav Bhatia on Monday alleged that the “kingpin of fake politics is Rahul Gandhi”. Bhatia was speaking on the Debate Tonight segment of Republic with Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on the deepfake video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah that was posted on social media by the Congress. A doctored video of Amit shah surfaced on the Internet yesterday, in which his speech was manipulated to sound as if he is saying that the caste quotas / reservation will be eliminated by BJP if it comes to power for the third time after the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.

Gaurav Bhatia said that the official social media handles of Telangana and Jharkhand Congress could not have shared deepfake videos of Union Home Minister Amit Shah without the approval of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. The deepfake video of Amit Shah was shared by the Telangana Congress handle on social media, and retweeted by other state handles of the Congress. 

The Delhi Police summoned Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Wednesday in connection with the deepfake video of Amit Shah. Four other people from the state were also summoned.

While speaking with Arnab Goswami, Gaurav Bhatia alleged, “The kingpin of fake politics is Rahul Gandhi. This deepfake video is the brainchild of Rahul Gandhi.”

"This video was shared by the official social media handles of Telangana and Jharkhand Congress. Can this happen without the approval of Rahul and Kharge?" Bhatia questioned.

Recently, several high-profile celebrities have had to face the problem of deepfake videos, including Home Minister Amit Shah, and film personalities like Ranveer Singh and Rashmika Mandanna.

Deepfakes are created by manipulation of images, videos and audio to make it look like a person is saying something or behaving in a certain manner, which is mostly false. It is a rising problem in the digital age, and especially amidst the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.

On Monday, a man named Reetom Singh, purpotedly belonging to the Assam Congress, was arrested in connection with the deepfake video of Amit Shah.