Abhishek Banerjee flays Kabir on home turf. Don’t fall for AI clips, says PM Narendra Modi

KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday warned voters in Murshidabad not to fall for what he called Trinamool's AI-generated disinformation campaign, even as Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee used the purported sting video against Humayun Kabir to mount a withering attack on the suspended legislator in his own backyard of Rejinagar.

Speaking at a rally in Jangipur, Modi said: "There is a conspiracy, and you need to be careful. Trinamool is panicking and will use conspiracies as the election draws closer. We have seen this in Assam and Puducherry — rumours based on AI-generated videos will be spread. Do not fall into that trap." Trinamool hit back immediately, demanding to know why the Prime Minister was "sounding like Kabir's spokesperson" and calling for a court-monitored probe into the video.




The video — released by Trinamool on April 9 and purportedly showing Kabir claiming he received Rs 1,000 crore from BJP — has roiled the opposition camp. Kabir has dismissed it as AI-generated and threatened legal action, but the fallout has been swift: his AJUP party president resigned and alliance partner AIMIM called off their poll pact. Union home minister Amit Shah also debunked the claims, saying BJP and those who espouse support for the Babri Masjid are "like the North Pole and the South Pole."

Abhishek seized on the controversy. Addressing a rally in Rejinagar — Kabir's stronghold — he said: "In the video, he is asking for Rs 1,000 crore — not for the mothers and brothers of Murshidabad, but for himself, so that he can do politics around the mosque and mislead people. He himself said ‘Muslims can easily be fooled.' Let me tell you, it is not just Muslims — we all can be fooled. We trust people, but if someone disrespects our trust, we know how to answer them back."

Banerjee revealed that Kabir had approached him before his expulsion from Trinamool, demanding that the party drop its Bharatpur candidate Mustafizur Rahaman. "He came to my office and said he would just put a brick at the mosque site and throw it away, but that Mustafizur needed to be ousted. I told him we do not do politics based on religion — BJP does temple politics and you are doing mosque politics, so what is the difference?" Banerjee said he told Kabir that if he wanted to build a mosque, he should resign from politics first.

Dismissing Kabir's claim that the video was AI-generated, Abhishek asked why Kabir had failed to convince his own people if that were true. "His candidate from Bharatpur has already resigned. Owaisi's AIMIM has cut ties with him. He could not explain it to his own people and is now coming before the press claiming it is an AI video," he said. He also pointed out that Kabir had himself contested on a BJP ticket in 2019 — seven years after the Babri Masjid demolition. "Now he is creating drama after taking money from them. Everything is clear to the people," Banerjee said.

Meanwhile, a complaint was filed against Kabir in Birbhum's Suri on Friday for allegedly attempting to stoke communal tensions.
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