Fact Check: India cannot beat Pakistan, says Retd. Major General GD Bakshi? No, video is AI-manipulated
A video is making rounds on social media with the claim that it shows retired Major General Bakshi making controversial comments, saying India cannot beat Pakistan.
By - K Sherly Sharon
Claim:The video shows the retired Major General Gagandeep Bakshi saying India lacks the capability to beat Pakistan.
Fact:The claim is false. The video is manipulated using AI.
Hyderabad: A video claiming to show retired Major General Gagandeep Bakshi saying India does not have the capacity to beat Pakistan is going viral on social media.
The 38-second-long video with an IANS logo shows the retired Major General speaking to the press. In the video, GD Bakshi could be heard allegedly saying, “India no longer has the capability to fight a war with Pakistan. It pains me to say this, but in the name of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat,’ India’s national treasury has been looted, and all the money has gone to Adani and Ambani.”
“As long as Asim Munir remains in power in Pakistan, India cannot harm Pakistan in any way. We have to do whatever it takes to remove Asim Munir and dismantle the business empires of Adani and Ambani. Modiji cannot do this; he lacks the capability. Now only Yogiji can do this.” (Translated from Hindi)
An X account, blocked in India but accessible by a VPN, shared the video with the caption, “‘India is no longer capable of fighting against Pakistan,’ said Retired Major General GD Bakshi.” (Archive)
A post making a similar claim can be seen here. (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the viral claim is false. The video is manipulated using AI.
Where is the video from?
Using reverse image search of the viral video keyframes, we found a video showing retired Major General GD Bakshi shared on X by IANS on January 4. This video shows GD Bakshi saying that India neutralised Pakistan’s Chinese S-300 air defences during Operation Sindoor.
Analysis of the video
When visually compared, it is clear that both videos are from the same meeting with the press. However, the IANS video does not show the retired Major General saying that India does not have the capability to beat Pakistan.
This hinted that the original video had been tampered with.
In comparison to the IANS video, the voice of GD Bakshi seems unnatural in the viral video. His facial movements and lip movements glitch sometimes.
We also found duplication of head movement and eye movement in the viral video. The viral video shows the same body language and gestures as the IANS video; however, the audio is different. A video showing the comparison of both videos can be found below.
Analysis through AI tools
We checked the audio of the viral video using Hiya Deepfake Video Detector and found that the tool scored the authenticity of the audio sample as 43 out of 100, determining that the model is uncertain whether the audio is a deepfake.
However, going by the comparisons between the IANS video and the viral clip, and the visual and audio discrepancies, it can be stated that Artificial Intelligence was used to modify the IANS video to create the viral video.
Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the viral claim is false.
