This analytical note examines the calculated use of AI, deepfakes, bot networks, and curated media narratives by the RSS–BJP ecosystem — not as isolated incidents, but as a continuous strategy to influence voters, suppress dissent, and engineer polarisation in India’s political landscape.
A Pattern, Not an Accident
Over the last decade, digital propaganda has evolved from crude WhatsApp forwards to sophisticated, AI-driven campaigns. Investigations reveal that BJP–RSS affiliated networks have deployed deepfakes, generative AI bots, and coordinated inauthentic behaviour to flood social media platforms with emotionally manipulative, divisive content. This is not random online chatter — it’s an organised ecosystem designed to dominate the narrative and drown out inconvenient truths.
Case Study — The 2024 General Elections
During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, TIME Magazine reported that AI-generated videos, doctored speeches, and hate-laced ads targeting Muslims circulated widely on platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). Many of these posts escaped moderation due to algorithmic loopholes or deliberate under-enforcement. The effect was twofold: reinforce the BJP’s Hindutva narrative and frame minority communities as threats to the majority.
Key Tactics Used in RSS–BJP Digital Propaganda
- AI-Generated Hate Content: Deepfakes portraying opposition leaders making inflammatory statements, and AI-created memes framing minorities as aggressors.
- Coordinated Bot Networks: Thousands of bot accounts amplify hashtags, attack dissenters, and create an illusion of overwhelming public support for the BJP.
- Algorithm Gaming: Timed posting, mass sharing, and comment brigading to push partisan content into trending lists.
- WhatsApp Disinformation Chains: Encrypted group messages pushing fake news, doctored images, and misleading “fact-checks” with communal undertones.
- Selective Media Partnerships: Friendly media houses given exclusive access to BJP narratives, ensuring saturation coverage while starving alternative viewpoints.
Earlier Incidents Showing the Same Playbook
- 2019 Pulwama–Balakot Cycle: Social media flooded with unverified “revenge” narratives and doctored images to inflame nationalist sentiment ahead of voting.
- Toolkit Hoax (2021): BJP leaders circulated a forged “Congress toolkit” document, later flagged as manipulated media by Twitter, to discredit opposition pandemic relief efforts.
- Misquoting Former PM Manmohan Singh (2024): BJP leaders revived a false claim that Singh said “Muslims have first right to resources,” stripping the original inclusive context.
- “Love Jihad” Social Campaigns: Years of sustained digital storytelling framing interfaith relationships as a coordinated Muslim plot to weaken Hindu society — despite no empirical evidence.
Impact on India’s Democratic Process
The weaponisation of AI and digital propaganda corrodes the democratic space in three critical ways:
- Voter Manipulation: Emotional, divisive content exploits cognitive biases, pushing voters towards fear-based decision-making rather than policy-based evaluation.
- Delegitimising Opposition: Deepfakes and edited clips create false scandals, eroding public trust in alternative leadership.
- Normalising Hate Speech: Constant exposure to dehumanising narratives makes intolerance feel like a legitimate political position.
Global Parallels and Why India’s Case is Dangerous
While disinformation campaigns are not unique to India, the combination of state-aligned political machinery, ideological networks like the RSS, and pliant media ecosystems makes the Indian case uniquely potent. In other democracies, independent institutions and investigative media act as partial guardrails; in India, those guardrails are being systematically dismantled.
Safeguards Against Digital Authoritarianism
- Mandatory labelling of AI-generated content on all platforms.
- Independent election-time social media audits, with enforcement power.
- Criminal penalties for knowingly deploying deepfakes in political contexts.
- Digital literacy programmes to help voters spot and resist manipulative content.
Conclusion
The RSS–BJP’s embrace of AI-driven propaganda is not innovation — it’s digital authoritarianism wrapped in saffron. The goal is not just winning elections, but controlling the national imagination itself. Unless India builds institutional and societal resistance to these tactics, the line between political communication and psychological warfare will vanish — if it hasn’t already.
