The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the plea on November 25. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Supreme Court on Friday (October 31, 2025) agreed to hear on November 25, a plea seeking the takedown of an AI-generated video circulated by the BJP Assam unit on September 15 on its official X handle ‘BJP Assam Pradesh’, “showing a grossly false narrative that depicts the takeover of Assam by Muslims if the BJP does not remain in power” after the Assembly elections in 2026.
“The broad message of the video is that the worst fate that a State can be met with is its takeover by Muslims. And that on the strength of the assurance that if the BJP is voted into power, the State would be saved from the same,” read an application, filed by journalist Qurban Ali and former HC judge Anjana Prakash through advocate Lzafeer Ahmad. Both are originally petitioners in a pending case against hate speech. Photographs annexed to the applications showed men and women in skullcaps and burqas in the backdrop of the States’s major landmarks like the Rang Ghar and the Guwahati Airport with a message at the end to electors – “choose your vote carefully”.
‘Immediate takedown necessary’
The application was orally mentioned before a Bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath by advocate Nizam Pasha. He submitted that the court had earlier issued notice in the plea, but the case had not come up for hearing. The application pointed out that the video had been re-posted 6,100 times, liked 19,000 times and viewed 4.6 million times, necessitating its “immediate takedown in order to contain any further spread of communal disharmony, unrest and enmity”.
“It is submitted that as the ruling dispensation, ‘BJP-Assam’ is bound by the Constitution of India and thereby is bound to uphold the secular values that form part of the basic structure of the Constitution. However, the video circulated by its official twitter handle openly targets, vilifies and demonises Muslims,” the application said.
The applicants contended that the video showed a “complete disregard of secular values that the ruling dispensation of any State of our country is bound to uphold”. “A State Government, elected and formed under the Constitution, is the guardian of all communities and is specifically prohibited by the Constitution from engaging in discrimination inter alia on the basis of religion, race, caste, gender, language,” it further noted.
Published – October 31, 2025 08:43 pm IST
