A video that appears to show an old interview in which former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is asked whether she imposed the Emergency to save her chair or to protect India’s democracy is not genuine but is an AI-generated deepfake.
Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency that lasted from June 25, 1975 to March 21, 1977, citing internal and external threats to national stability. During this 21-month period, civil liberties were suspended, opposition leaders were jailed, and the press was subjected to strict censorship.
The Claim: Video shows Indira Gandhi stunned into silence after she was asked a tough question on the Emergency
The 10-second video was posted on X by BJP Haryana's social media head Arun Yadav '@BeingArun28' with a Hindi caption that translates to, "'Madam' had no answer to this question!". The video shows Indira Gandhi asked by an interviewer, “By imposing Emergency, whose democracy did you save? the country’s or your chair?” Gandhi is shown appearing annoyed, and with the caption claiming she was unable to respond.
BOOM has previously fact-checked misinformation posted by Yadav on social media.
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What We Found:
1) No Evidence of Such an Interview existing
We ran a reverse image search and a keyword search but found no archival record of Indira Gandhi giving such an interview or being asked this question by the male journalist shown in the viral video. We also found no reports of any post-Emergency interview in which Gandhi was asked, “By imposing the Emergency, whose democracy did you save—the country’s or your chair?”
In a 1975 BBC interview, Gandhi defended her decision to impose an Emergency while claiming she had not taken away anyone’s rights and had acted within the powers of the Constitution.
2) Visual cues suggest synthetic media
Indira Gandhi's face in the video has an unnaturally glossy appearance, which is often seen in AI-generated videos.
We did not find any archival photo or video of Gandhi wearing the same saree as seen in the clip. The identity of the male interviewer could not be established, nor could the setting be matched to any video interview on public record.
3) AI Detection Tool results
We tested the video on multiple AI-detection tools including DeepFake-O-Meter, Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector, and Hive Moderation, all flagging it as AI-generated.
The Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector gave the voice an authenticity score of 1 /100, indicating it’s likely a deepfake.
DeepFake-O-Meter by UB Media Forensics Lab at the University at Buffalo, also confirmed the use of AI, with one of its result giving it a Fake probability of 100%.
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Hive Moderation also flagged the video as 99.8% likely to be AI-generated.