A video, which purports to show Congress leader Sachin Pilot claiming he was unexpectedly pulled from an Oxford Union debate on India-Pakistan relations due to government pressure, is fake.
BOOM fact-checked the video and found that Pilot never made the statement, with multiple AI detection tools confirming it was manipulated using artificial intelligence.
The debate at the Oxford Union, scheduled for November 27, 2025, was ultimately canceled. Following the cancellation, the Pakistan High Commission claimed the Indian speakers backed out at the last minute, while the Indian side maintained the program was canceled due to the absence of the official Pakistani delegation, and that India was later falsely accused.
The Claim
An X account with the username @Kussikhuelafn shared the video with the caption, "My report from yesterday has now been confirmed by Sachin Pilot. The Indian delegation’s walkout happened under pressure from the Modi govt. Why is the BJP humiliating my India on the world stage? Why were the moral values and reputation of Indians damaged across the globe?"
Click here to view the post.
What We Found: Viral Video Is AI Manipulated
1. AI Detector Tools Flag Manipulation: We found no credible news reports to corroborate that Pilot made such remarks.
When we checked the viral footage on AI detector tools including Deepfake-o-Meter, Hive Moderation and the AI voice detector tool Hiya, the results showed that the video has been altered with the help of AI. Deepfake-o-Meter’s lip sync detection model flagged the footage as up to 99.3 percent fake and potentially AI generated. Hive Moderation also indicated that the video is up to 99 percent AI generated.
The AI voice detector tool Hiya has also given the video's audio an authenticity score of 1 out of 100, which indicates the chances of it being AI are quite high.
Congress leader Sachin Pilot has also posted on his X handle and described the video as fake.
2. The Original India Today Report: We then found out the original video of Sachin Pilot on India Today’s official YouTube channel, posted on October 5, 2025. In that video report, the Congress leader can be heard describing his visit to Rajasthan NSUI President Vinod Jakhar, who was detained by the police.