Fact Check: CDS Anil Chauhan says BJP is using Indian Army to win Bihar polls? No, video is manipulated
A video has been circulating online, claiming it shows CDS Anil Chauhan making political remarks about PM Modi and the Indian Army, linking it to the Bihar elections.
By - Md Mahfooz Alam
Claim:The video shows CDS Anil Chauhan saying that the BJP will lose in the Bihar elections as they have been using the Indian Army to promote their image.
Fact:The claim is false. The video has been manipulated by adding external audio, which could be AI-generated.
Hyderabad: As Bihar votes in the final phase on November 11 for the 2025 Assembly elections, a video of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Anil Chauhan has been circulating on social media, claiming he said the BJP would lose the election because they exploit the Indian Army for votes.
In the video, Chauhan allegedly said, “I think that the BJP expected losses in the Bihar elections mainly because of one single reason: they have kept using the Indian Army as bait to prop up their image. A professional army always fights for its country, but ever since PM Modi came into power, he has always considered the Indian Army as the concubine of his political party. This is exactly why we oppose the saffronization of the Indian Army. In the Bihar elections, I told my fellow jawans that you need to spread this slogan: ‘Stop the war game. Modi, you have failed in Bihar.’ And it has worked well.”
An X account (currently withheld in India), The Whistle Blower, which has been frequently peddling AI-manipulated content, shared the video with the caption, “Indian CDS Anil Chohan slams center government, “A professional army always fights for their country but ever since PM Modi came into power, he always considered the Indian army as the concubine of his political party, this is exactly why we opposed the saffronization of the Indian army.” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the video has been manipulated.
Any media reports on CDS slamming the Modi-led Central government?
We ran a keyword search on CDS, criticising the Central government for using the Indian Army as a prop to garner votes, but found no credible reports.
Source of the video
We conducted a reverse image search and found an over two minutes video published by ANI on November 9. In this video, we did not find CDS slamming the Modi government as seen in the viral video.
The news agency quoted the initial part of the CDS speech in an event in Chandigarh as saying, “If you look at the geopolitical events of the 20th century, India’s partition, the coming of Pakistan, our war with China, forced India to have a continental kind of an outlook. But if you have a look at India’s geography, I think it says that India is both a continental and a maritime power... So India enjoys a predominant position in the Indian Ocean region, and hence, we are always the first responder and preferred partner of choice for any other country…”
We also found the CDS speech live-streamed on ANI’s YouTube channel on November 9, titled, ‘CDS General Chauhan, Punjab CM Mann attends 9th Military Literature Festival in Chandigarh.’ We also checked the entire speech, but did not find him slamming the government.
PIB clarification
The Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) fact-checking wing clarified on its official X handle in a post on November 11, stating the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) has not made any such statement.
The post also stated that several Pakistani propaganda handles are circulating a ‘doctored video’ falsely showing CDS Chauhan making political remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian Army, linking it to the Bihar elections. It also stated that the video has been AI-generated to spread misinformation and undermine faith in the Indian Armed Forces.
NewsMeter also analysed the audio on AI-detection tools but could not find convincing results. However, as we traced the original version of the video, we concluded that the viral video had been manipulated by adding external audio. Hence, the claim is false.
