I knew this trend of turning our photographs into 1980s versions would take an ugly turn.
I had written about the fad when it was still innocent fun – giving ourselves big hair, oversized sunglasses, denim jackets, and that unmistakable grainy finish of an old photograph. It was nostalgia with a touch of AI magic.
Then politics discovered it. And what better way to ruin a perfectly harmless fad than to turn it into a BJP-Congress meme war?
When nostalgia became ammunition
The Congress appears to have started the show, with its Kerala unit posting an AI-generated picture of a man sitting in a Maruti Suzuki Omni, captioned: ‘A Gujarat street in the 80s.’
The choice of the Omni was hardly accidental. The ubiquitous van, launched in India in the 1980s, became a favourite Bollywood vehicle for goons and kidnappers.
It even acquired the unofficial reputation of being the ‘kidnapping van’.
So much for nostalgia. The BJP, predictably, took the bait.
Newton joins the political battle
The BJP’s counter followed Newton’s third law with more force than necessary. Instead of merely returning the compliment, it brought out the Congress’s own 1980s baggage – Indira Gandhi, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the party’s record during that turbulent decade.
It also did something particularly clever: it posted real photographs of Narendra Modi from the 1980s. Why waste AI on a fake 80s Modi when the real photographs are available? That was a good political counter. But then the battle crossed a line.
Sonia Gandhi enters the frame
The BJP dragged Sonia Gandhi into the exchange, referring to Lusiana in Italy, where she was born. Some BJP-linked posts went further, using AI-generated imagery to place her in sexually suggestive situations.
That wasn’t clever – It wasn’t even particularly political. It was just ugly. If the Opposition tries to ridicule the prime minister, the ruling party can certainly ridicule the Opposition in return. Politics has never been a finishing school for good manners.
But there is a difference between giving somebody a political drubbing and dragging a woman into fabricated sexual imagery. The latter says more about the person creating the image than the person appearing in it.
Adusu throkkanela, kaalu kadaganela
There is a Telugu saying that fits this little episode rather perfectly: ‘Adusu throkkanela, kaalu kadaganela.’ Why step into the mud and then wash your feet.
The English equivalent is even more familiar: People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. The Congress seems to have forgotten this.
Perhaps both parties should have remembered that political satire works best when the target is the opponent’s politics, not somebody’s personal life.
AI has changed the game
The worrying part is not really the 1980s photographs. It is how effortlessly AI can manufacture something that never happened and make it look as though it did.
Until recently, manipulating photographs required some technical skill. Today, a prompt can do the job. The technology has become sophisticated. Our political discourse, unfortunately, hasn’t.
What began as a harmless exercise in nostalgia has become another digital battleground where parties can manufacture their own versions of history – with just one AI prompt. The irony is delicious.
We started with AI taking us back to the 1980s. Our politicians have managed to take us back to the politics of the 1980s as well. Old grievances, old accusations, and old mudslinging. Only the mud is now AI-generated. And if this is what artificial intelligence has in store for us, perhaps natural intelligence deserves a revival first.
