In a major setback to the Congress, the Patna High Court on Wednesday directed the opposition party to remove the AI-generated video depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s late mother, Heeraben Modi, from all social media platforms.
The video, put out by the Congress's Bihar unit last week, showed Modi's mother appearing in his dream and criticising him for his style of politics.
"Sahab ke sapno mein aayi maa. Dekhiye rochak samvaad (Mother came in the sahab's dream. Watch an interesting interaction between them)" the party had said in the post.
The video stirred up a political storm with the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies accusing the opposition party of disrespecting the prime minister's mother.
"Is this the level Congress has stooped to? Making memes of our PM's late mother, that too of such a cheap standard. How low will Congress fall?," asked senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Many other NDA allies, including the JDU and the LJP, had also come out criticising the video.
JD-U working president Sanjay Kumar Jha termed the Congress's post on X an "extremely vile act" and said that with this, the party has proved that hurling abuses at Modi's late mother was part of its "well-thought-out strategy".
"This is an insult not only to one mother but also to every mother and woman," the Rajya Sabha MP said.
The grand old party, however, defended its action, saying no disrespect was shown to the prime minister or his mother in the video.
"What is their objection? Just because a mother is trying to educate her son to do something right, where is it disrespectful - neither to the mother, whom we respect dearly, nor to the son," Congress media head Pawan Khera said.