Deepfakes of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Manoj Pande (Retd), in which they appear to criticise the current Indian government and its armed forces have surfaced.
As the West Asia conflict between Iran and US–Israel forces continue, a wave of synthetic media related to Indian government officials and the war is spreading across social media. BOOM has fact checked deepfakes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and multiple defence personalities which appear to claim that India has been supporting Israel in the ongoing conflict.
Claim 1: Video shows Congress MP Shashi Tharoor saying 'Pakistan is faring much better diplomatically than India'
The handle @InsiderWB posted the video with the caption, "Breaking Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: On US-Israel-Iran war, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "What Modi has done remains a historical blunder, you can't make friends with declining powers and expect India to go ahead. The global South is a reality, China, Russia and Pakistan are now more closer than ever."
Ayesha Manzoor Wattoo, Director General of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, also shared the post from her verified X handle and amplified the false claim.
Claim 2: Video shows former army chief warning about mutiny and Israel’s influence within the Indian army
The same X handle posted another video featuring former Chief of Army Staff Gen Manoj Pande (Retd.), in which he is heard saying that the current situation is turning the Indian Army into an ethnic force instead of an ethical one. The video further shows Pande warning about a possible mutiny, making remarks about the situation in Assam and alleging Israeli influence within the armed forces that could trigger internal revolt due to communal hatred.
BOOM had earlier reported in detail about the pro-Pakistan X handle @InsiderWB, which repeatedly posted deepfake videos of Indian government officials during the 2025 India-Pakistan military standoff. The account is currently withheld in India due to legal demands.
What We Found: Viral Videos Are Deepfakes
1. Digital Alteration Of Tharoor’s Speech: We first ran a related keyword search but found no credible news report carrying the viral statement attributed to Tharoor. We then broke the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search, which led us to the original video posted by news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) on March 14, 2026.
In the original report, the Congress MP is not heard praising Pakistan or making the statement that appears in the viral video.
We also ran the video through Deepfake-o-Meter, an AI detection tool developed by the University at Buffalo. The analysis across multiple models confirmed that the video shows signs of AI manipulation.
2. AI Manipulation Found In Former Army Chief’s Video: We were unable to find any credible news report, when we ran a keyword search based on the viral speech attributed to the former Army Chief. We then conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video, which led us to the original video report published by news agency PTI on March 14, 2026.
The report shows General Pande speaking about current security challenges and stating that the armed forces must be future ready. He does not make any statement similar to what is heard in the viral video.
A further analysis of the footage using Deepfake-o-Meter also showed signs of AI manipulation in the video.
