A video claiming to show Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) Anil Chauhan calling for the removal of non-Hindus from the Indian Army and crediting the armed forces Trishul exercise for the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) win in the Bihar assembly election, is doctored and fake.
BOOM found that the voice over in the clip is entirely fabricated and generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
The Claim
The viral video shows CDS Chauhan saying the NDA alliance was able to win because of Indian armed forces' Trishul excercises. He can be heard saying, "Prime Minister Modi and his aim of saffronisation has led to a wider public demand that the Indian Army "gets rid of the DNA of the invaders." Chauhan can be further heard admitting that he suggested the removal of 50% of the non-caste Hindus from the army by 2028 since the Indian army needs to be "shudh" before what he referred to as the "dharm yudh" against Pakistan.
A Pakistani X user posted the video claiming in caption, "Breaking News: Indian Chief of Defense Staff General Anil Chauhan claims that NDA alliance won Bihar election because of the Trishul exercises. He names Indian war against Pakistan as part of larger dharm yudh, for which Muslims need to be removed from the Indian army."
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What We Found
1. Original Speech: A reverse image search on one of the keyframes of the viral video led us to a video uploaded by ANI News on November 16 where CDS Chauhan can be seen speaking in a similar setting as the viral clip. In the ANI video, we noticed United Service Institution of India's logo with IMHF 2025 written below it.
We, then, found the live stream of the Indian Military Heritage Festival (IMHF) from November 15, 2025 uploaded on YouTube by the official channel of United Service Institution of India. CDS General Anil Chauhan can be seen in conversation with Air Marshal Dr Rajeev Sachdeva from 7:58:13 hours. BOOM watched the entire segment where CDS Chauhan spoke but did not find him making the same remarks as shown in viral video. Rather he can be heard explaining the national security architecture while referencing Operation Sindoor.
2. Viral Video Is AI Manipulated: Taking a cue from our findings, we extracted the voice clip from the viral video and tested it on Hiya, an AI voice detection tool. The results showed only 1% chance of the voice being authentic or human, indicating the voice to be generated using AI.
BOOM had debunked similar manipulated videos of CDS Anil Chauhan before. Click here, here and here to see.
