Ahead of the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections in February 2025, the Aam Aadmi Party launched a controversial campaign against BJP releasing a doctored video featuring a renowned actor Pankaj Tripathi on 5th December. The party doctored an advertisement video warning against fraud UPI transactions to portray that Tripathi was campaigning against the BJP by claiming that those who would vote for the BJP would fall into the category of fools.
The doctored video was posted by the official handle of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on 5th December. However, the video was deleted after being severely criticized by the netizens on social media. Though the post has been deleted, its archive can be found here.
In the doctored video, Tripathi appears as a peanut merchant and says, “I sell peanuts, not my brain. Take a look at the message the BJP sent. It reads, ‘Vote for us, we shall bring progress.’ Do you think I know nothing? I’ll vote for them here, and the government money will gone. I’m a peanut seller, not a fool. Remember: if the BJP tempts you, say, ‘I am not a fool.'”
The doctored advertisement by the AAP also alleged the national ruling party of corruption. The caption of AAP’s post read, “Tell BJP men—I am not a fool…” The video was notably shared by several AAP official handles and followers. It still appears on the social media pages of AAP Rajasthan and AAP Selampur even after slammed by netizens for making ill use of AI against an actor.
In the video shared by AAP, it is clear that on the phone held by Pankaj Tripathi, an image saying ‘Vote for BJP’ on a saffron background and with BJP logo was superimposed on the original video, where the phone showed a UPI screen.
Netizens slammed the AAP for making negative use of Artificial Intelligence. “Extremely dangerous use of AI to impersonate an actor and use the clip for an election campaign. AAP’s official Twitter handle runs the dubbed ad. Here’s the AAP version. Followed by the original UPI ad. The clip has now been deleted,” journalist Sanket Upadhyay said sharing the doctored and the original video.
Extremely dangerous use of AI to impersonate an actor and use the clip for an election campaign. AAP official twitter handle runs the dubbed ad. Here’s the AAP version. Followed by the original UPI ad. The clip has now been deleted. pic.twitter.com/H2r66huHxX
— Sanket Upadhyay (@sanket) December 5, 2024
One of the users meanwhile called the party Congress and said that it could do anything to get votes. While another user said that the real nature of the AAP had been exposed.
It is crucial to note that in the year 2023, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced a tie-up with actor Pankaj Tripathi, designating him as its “UPI Safety Ambassador”. The Indian fast payment system Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, then launched an ad campaign called “Main Moorkh Nahi Hoon” in September of this year, starring Tripathi as a peanut seller who got a bogus lottery notification. It was created to raise awareness about scams using digital payment services.
An NPCI press release dated November 6th further stated that the public sector business had initiated a UPI Safety Awareness Campaign. The said campaign plans to feature Tripathi in a series of six ad videos illustrating common scam strategies. So far, three such videos have been released featuring Tripathi as a peanut seller, a betel seller, and a business executive. Three more video advertisements are awaited.
However, it is evident that AAP has used doctored a video to campaign against BJP ahead of the Delhi Assembly Elections.
