AI video of COAS Upendra Dwivedi telling Indian army to reduce number of non-Hindu soldiers by 50% goes viral

A video of Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi making controversial statements about the Indian Army, claiming that the number of non-Hindu soldiers will be halved by 2028, has gone viral on social media. Users spread the video, claiming it was an attempt to purge the Indian military of people who do not fit into the traditional Hindu caste hierarchy.

The full speech, as can be heard in the viral clip, is as follows:Lately, our ranks have been debating whether non-Hindu castes should remain in the Indian Army. I expressed this concern to Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and his response was clear. The number of non-Hindu soldiers must be reduced by more than 50% by 2028. We started selecting people who refused to accept Hinduism. Those wishing to convert may receive a five-year extension. However, judge their integrity before giving them a promotion. We are told that the Indian Army is for Hindus, not for outsiders or the descendants of so-called invaders. This policy is not about merit or loyalty, it is about eliminating diversity. As soldiers, we are told to trade our oath for ideology. History will remember what goes on in these halls.

X user @Baba_Thoka posted a video on November 4 and wrote, “Non-caste Hindus in the army will be shown the door by 2028. Apparently patriotism comes with gotra certificate.” (archive)

Breaking news:
Hindutva in India finally brings the dream of “one nation, one caste” to the barracks!
Apparently, non-caste Hindus in the armed forces will be shown the door by 2028 as patriotism comes with a gotra certificate. pic.twitter.com/ebCdpPovZk

— Baba Thoka (@Baba_Thoka) November 4, 2025

X user @InsiderWB also shared the video, but later deleted it. (archive)

Readers should note that this user has been accused by Alt News of amplifying misinformation several times in the past.

Several other users, e.g. @MehboobQadir4, @SadiasOfficial, @zaryabali720 People like also popularized this video. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)

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The video, along with the accompanying claims, also went viral on WhatsApp. Alt News received several requests on our helpline (to review the clips).

fact check

Recently, several doctored videos of defense officers including Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai and Colonel Sofia Qureshi making controversial claims about the Indian Army have also gone viral. Altnews debunked them at the time. However, this also called into question the authenticity of the video featuring COAS General Upendra Dwivedi.

I did some related keyword searches to see if this speech was reported by reliable news outlets, but found nothing.

I then split the viral clip into keyframes. A reverse image search for one such keyframe found this video uploaded by ANI on November 1st.

#clock | Rewa, Madhya Pradesh | Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi said, “Coming to TRS College was a great privilege for me. I had been near this building since 1973 but had never been inside it. It was a great source of inspiration for me…I was deeply inspired… pic.twitter.com/AsA9uCugeM

— Ani (@ANI) November 1, 2025

The clip shows General Upendra Dwivedi giving a press conference at TRS University in Madhya Pradesh, talking about the lessons learned from Operation Sindoor and extolling qualities such as confidence, courage, cooperation, change and clarity.

We went through the entire video to see if General Dwivedi made any controversial statements and we found that he did not make any such statements.

I then checked the viral video again and found that the lip movements were slightly out of sync with the audio in some parts. This indicated that this viral video could also be a deepfake, just like those of Colonel Qureshi and LG Guy.

Indeed, when we ran this viral video through HIVE’s AI detection tool, we found that the clip contained AI-generated content 91.5% of the time.

Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the viral video, which appears to show Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi claiming that the Indian Army has decided to reduce the number of non-Hindu soldiers recruited into the Army by 50% by 2028, is AI-generated and not genuine.

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