Pune (Maharashtra) [India], April 18 : A few days after Mahayuti leaders criticised Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena over the purported use of Artificial Intelligence to recreate the voice of party's founder Balasaheb Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party (SCP) leader Rohit Pawar attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party for being hypocritical over their use of AI.
"The BJP also uses AI, and secondly, the BJP cell has used AI technology for Modi's speech, his designs, Amit Shah, and other big leaders too. If they are saying that it is wrong, then what they used is also wrong," Pawar told ANI on Thursday.
He took a jibe at the government, asking them to restrict the use of AI for everyone, adding, "If you decide no one will use it, then we all will say that let's play on the equal field."
His comments backing the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance partner, the Shiv Sena (UBT), come after the party played an AI-generated voice of Balasaheb Thackeray at a party rally in Nashik on Wednesday, April 16. Balasaheb Thackeray is the founder of the undivided Shiv Sena and father of Uddhav Thackeray.
Earlier on Wednesday, BJP's Maharashtra president Chandrashekhar Bawankule hit out at UBT-Sena for using the name of the Shiv Sena founder, calling it "childish." Criticising the MVA for scams in the state, insulting Veer Savarkar, opposing the Ram temple, and more would have been disliked by Balasaheb, and his voice should not be misused for their purposes.
The Maharashtra BJP president wrote in a post on X, "Those who named parks after Tipu Sultan, voted against Waqf, sat on the laps of who opposed Ram temple, filled the homes of Marathi people with scams, Balasaheb would have kicked their ass."
Telling people that Balasaheb's name should not be misused by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, his post concluded, "For the things for which venerable Balasaheb spent his entire life, at least Balasaheb's voice should not be used against him. His thoughts should be drowned out. At least after his death, do not misuse his voice like this."