If Left Democratic Front (LDF) convener E.P. Jayarajan’s latest accusations against Congress were anything to go by, counterfeit technology appeared to have made its arguably first foray into Lok Sabha electoral politics in Kerala on Wednesday.
Mr. Jayarajan accused Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan of propagating falsified photographs of his family with Union Minister of State for IT Rajiv Chandrasekhar to mislead voters into thinking they had a shady business association. The Kannur police have taken cognisance of the alleged offence.
The accusation has also raised questions about using alleged fake imagery of family members to mislead voters and rewrite the campaign narrative.
The Congress’s attempt to draw anti-Sangh Parivar votes to the United Democratic Front (UDF) by propagandising that the respective leaderships of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shared a symbiotic relationship that transcended ideology and politics and centred more on reciprocal financial gain had triggered the current controversy.
Mr. Satheesan attempted to wrongfoot the CPI(M) and the BJP simultaneously by provoking Mr. Jayarajan to comment on the Congress’s charge. The gambit triggered a testy war of words between the two leaders.
Mr. Jayarajan appeared hard-pressed to deny that his family had stakes in the resort. Instead, he queried whether holding shares in a business venture was a crime. Mr. Jayarajan defended his erstwhile advisory role at the resort by claiming he was an institution builder.
Mr. Satheesan riposted that the business nexus was merely the iceberg’s tip. He dared both leaders to sue him for libel so he could adduce more evidence about their relationship in court.
Mr. Satheesan reiterated his accusation that the CPI(M) ‘s alleged tacit understanding with the BJP’s national leadership had ensured that central investigations against the LDF government had ended in blind eyes.
Mr. Satheesan said the CPI(M) reciprocated the favour by letting BJP leaders involved in election bribery and hawala cases off the hook.
The Congress seemed poised to exploit the controversy to the hilt to offset the CPI(M) campaign that the Opposition was inherently “soft Hindutva” and BJP’s B-team in Kerala.
Mr. Chandrasekhar, the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate in Thiruvananthapuram, rejected Mr. Satheesan’s charge.
However, whether deep fake technologies might become a fixture in political parties’ electoral playbooks in Kerala remains a question.
