Indian Democracy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Study of Its Impact on Political Public Opinion and Electoral Politics

Abstract

This paper examines how artificial intelligence, and generative AI in particular, is reshaping Indian democracy, with a focus on two closely related domains: the formation of political public opinion and the practical conduct of electoral politics. Drawing on documented developments from India's 2024 general election, subsequent state elections, and the evolving regulatory response of the Election Commission of India and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the paper argues that AI functions in the Indian context as a dual-use technology whose democratic consequences depend on who deploys it, for what purpose, and under what institutional constraints. The analysis is organized around three effects: enhancement, whereby AI has expanded the linguistic reach and inclusiveness of political communication in a highly diverse electorate; distortion, whereby deepfakes, voice cloning, and synthetic media have been used to mislead voters, fabricate endorsements, and inflame sensitive social cleavages; and asymmetry, whereby unequal access to AI infrastructure and resources has altered the competitive balance among political actors. The paper reviews India's regulatory trajectory, including Election Commission advisories issued between 2024 and 2025 and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's October 2025 draft amendments to the Intermediary Guidelines, situating these developments within comparative international approaches from the European Union, the United States, and China. It concludes with policy recommendations addressing detection capacity, closed-network messaging platforms, campaign finance transparency, and voter digital literacy, and argues that India's experience offers an instructive case study for other large, diverse democracies confronting the same technological transformation.