Since coming to power, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been criticized for promoting Hindu nationalism, saying they are endangering the country’s secularist agenda. However, a video purportedly showing a senior Indian military official criticizing Prime Minister Modi has been circulating online, and it was actually created using AI. The clip contains visual indicators that it was fabricated and appears to be based on a televised speech by an official, who did not speak.
A portion of the X post shared on October 23, 2025 reads, “Lt. Gen. Rajiv Ghai (retd.) condemns the politics of #BJP and #NarendraModi and warns that any desecration or politicization of the Indian Army will destroy morale.”
The 35-second clip shows Ghai, the Indian military official who liaised with Pakistan on a ceasefire that halted days of fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbors in May, speaking from a podium in military uniform (archives here and here).
It begins with his next words. “As a senior officer who has dedicated decades to the service of this military, I say this with deep concern. The growing influence of saffron politics is eroding the core values of the Indian Army.”
In the rest of the video, Guy says the military’s strength lies not in religious polarization, but in discipline, unity, and adherence to constitutional obligations.
Screenshot of a false post taken on October 30, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
Saffronization in this context refers to the process of politicizing public knowledge, culture, and institutions through the promotion of right-wing Hindu nationalist ideology, or Hindutva, often associated with Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (archive link).
Since Mr. Modi took office in 2014, calls for India to more closely align its officially secular political system with its Hindu majority faith have grown rapidly.
However, some of Prime Minister Modi’s policies have been criticized as discriminatory against Muslims and endangering secularism. It also includes the Citizenship Amendment Act, adopted in 2019, which grants citizenship to refugees in India, but not if they are Muslim (archive link).
Similar claims were also circulated on Facebook and X, with some users’ comments indicating they believed the video showed Mr Guy’s genuine remarks.
One user said: “Ah…as we all know, Mr. Modi can do anything for elections. He’s India’s Dirty Harry.”
Another wrote: “India is already isolated. Military should not be involved in any politics.”
Indian fact-checker Factly also debunks this claim (archive link).
A closer look at the video revealed that it had AI-generated signatures. These include Guy’s lip movements not matching the audio, and the word “DEFENCE” below the logo of Republic TV, an Indian news channel, in the top left corner occasionally changing into gibberish.
In the original video, the graphics behind Guy move, but in the fake video, they remain stationary.
Analysis using Hive’s AI detection tool also shows that there is a 99.5% chance that the video was generated by AI (archive link).
Hive analysis screenshot taken on November 4, 2025
After doing a reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the circulating clip, the video appears to be based on a YouTube video titled “Lt. Gen. Rajiv Ghai LIVE On India’s Biggest Forces First Conclave” published by Republic TV on October 18, 2025 (archive link).
In the video, Ghai discussed India’s preparedness for future conflicts, calling Operation Sindur (the name of India’s missile attack on Pakistan in May) an example of precision, multi-domain warfare while maintaining escalation control.
He also emphasized the importance of joint command, technology-driven warfare, and efforts to counter misinformation, but did not mention politicization or the so-called civilization of the military.
AFP has published a guide on how to identify AI-generated content.
