NEW DELHI: “The 80s called, I answered,” quipped agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as he posted on X a picture of him from that era. Congress Kerala posted an invented Gujarat street scene; BJP Telangana replied with a fabricated bar scene tagged “Lusiana, Italy”, apparently alluding to Sonia Gandhi’s birthplace.The ’80s came calling, and India’s politicians answered with aviators, old albums and a little swagger. Then party accounts joined the nostalgia trip, remembering to pack a few jibes for the other side.Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal shared an AI portrait of himself in a suit and aviators, saying: “Vibing to the 80s trend”. Union ports, shipping and waterways minister Sarbananda Sonowal wrote: “80s vibes: Styles fade, but the appeal is forever!” A line fit for a campaign, vintage or otherwise.Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma chimed in: “Back to the 80s eh!” Telangana CM Revanth Reddy appeared beside a motorbike in his post. For a while, the competition seemed to be over who wore the decade best.Others let their albums do the talking. Congress neta Renuka Chowdhury offered a reality check: “Me? I’ve got receipts.” She shared what she de-scribed as an ’80s Savvy magazine cover featuring herself.Union minister Kiren Rijiju followed his AI makeover with a throwback he said needed neither AI nor ChatGPT. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor posted pictures with his sons, Ishaan and Kanishk. “I thought I’d join the trend the old-fashioned way,” he wrote, a real photograph a boast of its own amid the trend built on imagining the past.BJP’s Tamilisai Soundararajan shared wedding footage featuring then chief minister MGR and opposition leader M Karunanidhi. Rival camps on one guest list.
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The party accounts added their own gloss. BJP Tamil Nadu’s montage of PM Narendra Modi mixed AI styling with archival photographs, ending with “karmayogi”. Congress Sevadal posted AI images of Rahul Gandhi.Then came the knowing captions. Congress Kerala’s AI image showed a bald man in an Omni van: “A Gujarat street in the 80s.” A roadside sign said in Hindi: “Please smile, you are in Delhi.” BJP Telangana’s bar scene was dated “Circa-1970’s”. Neither named its target.The clothes belonged to another decade. The urge to have the last word was entirely up to date.