Screengrab from the X account of @CPIM_WESTBENGAL
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has released a video of former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, generated through artificial intelligence (AI), where the communist veteran is seen urging people to vote for Left democratic secular candidates.
The two-minute video of Mr. Bhattacharjee in Bengali has been shared on the social media handles of the party with the title ‘Comrade Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s call to save the country and the state in the current political situation’.
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Observers say that for a party which opposed computers when it was in power in the State, things have come full circle with the use of AI for propagating political messages. The CPI(M)-led Left Front was in power in West Bengal for 34 years from 1977 to 2011 before the Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, along with the Congress party, defeated the Left Front in the State.
In the video, the former CM refers to the Sandeshkhali incident and says that the injustice by the TMC cannot be forgiven and corruption had become rampant in the State. The video shows Mr. Bhattacharjee commenting on corruption with electoral bonds, and that the BJP is spewing communal hatred. The video is in the line with the argument which Mr. Bhattacharjee would give during his public speeches, when he would say, “Remove TMC save the State; defeat BJP save the country.”
Fresh faces, use of AI
The last public appearance that Mr. Bhattacharjee made was at a public meeting at Brigade Parade Grounds in February 2016. Since then, the former Chief Minister has been confined to his residence owing to his failing health. An audio recording of Mr. Bhattacharjee was also released during the 2021 Assembly election, urging voters to vote for Left Front candidates. However, this is the first time that the CPI(M) has used AI.
Most of the Left Front candidates in the ongoing Lok Sabha election are fresh faces, from the student and youth wings of the party, and several are contesting the parliamentary election for the first time. The CPI(M)‘s strategy for this election includes new faces and the use of AI.
During the ongoing Lok Sabha election, the CPI(M) has fielded 23 candidates. Its allies are the Revolutionary Socialist Party (three candidates), the All India Forward Bloc (two candidates), and the Communist Party of India (two candidates). The Congress party, which has forged an electoral alliance, is contesting 12 seats in West Bengal in this election.
Senior journalist Sabyasachi Bandhyopadhyay, who has worked in major national dailies in Kolkata, describes the CPI(M) resorting to AI as “ironic”. “Throughout the decades of the 1980s and 1990s, we were witness to how the CPI(M) opposed automation and later, the use of computers. The party resorting to artificial intelligence for campaign is coming to a full circle,” he said.
Mr. Bandyopadhyay refers to an anecdote during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, when Mr. Bhattacharjee, in the presence of Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, admitted that resisting computerisation was a mistake. At an event in Kolkata, Mr. Bhattacharjee had said that his government was “slow and steady” in adopting new technology, to which Mr Ramesh had said that one could not be slow when it came to adopting new technology.
