A BJP minister in Uttar Pradesh has alleged the use of AI to defame her and her government after an audio clip began circulating on social media, purporting to show her complaining against the administration.
A woman’s voice resembling that of Vijay Laxmi Gautam, minister of state for rural development, is heard in the audio.
The speaker says in Hindi that she has been made a “dhakkan (lid) in this government” — that is, she has no real power — because “the chief minister knows that I have been imposed on him”. She goes on to complain about the absence of cooperation from the government in developing her area.
She adds that sums of ₹600 crore, and then ₹400 crore, were released in a single year for the development of Gorakhpur, implying a bias in favour of chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s hometown.
Some other voices are heard in the audio but what they are saying cannot be made out.
The 60-year-old Gautam, a first-time minister, told reporters on Saturday that “it’s a fake audio made with the help of Artificial Intelligence”.
“A gang is active in my area to malign the image of the government. I have informed the police and an inquiry has begun. Very soon, the criminals will be brought to book.”
Gautam, a first-time MLA from Salempur, had begun her political career with the BJP but joined the Samajwadi Party in 2017 after being denied a poll ticket. She contested and lost to the BJP from Salempur. She returned to the BJP in 2022 and won.
BJP circles in Uttar Pradesh agree that MPs and MLAs have little say in decisions relating to development.
“The chief minister relies heavily on bureaucrats for every decision — whether relating to development projects or poll strategy — and ignores us,” an MLA who didn’t want to be named said.
He said the reliance on government officials leads to uneven distribution of development projects across constituencies.
“This is one reason that BJP workers didn’t campaign for the party (in many constituencies) in the general election and our seats tally from the state fell from 62 to 33,” the MLA said.
“We keep telling our leaders in Delhi about the situation but they don’t take us seriously. In the field, we can’t defend the state government’s performance. The lack of parity in funds released for development is something the voters understand easily and react accordingly during elections.”
