Fact Check: Unaired Lok Sabha video shows PM Modi's shock after Pahalgam attack? Here are the facts

yderabad: As tensions escalated following the Pahalgam attack between India and Pakistan, there was also a parallel war in cyberspace, unleashing waves of propaganda, misinformation and AI-generated disinformation for narrative dominance.

In this context, a clip of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech from the ongoing Monsoon Session is circulating on social media. The video allegedly shows PM Modi expressing shock and fear following the Pakistan attack, claiming that Home Minister Amit Shah was hiding in his home and that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was planning to flee the country to save his life. He allegedly also claimed that he had to seek the help of US President Donald Trump.

The video is being circulated, claiming it as an exclusive clip which was not aired on the news channels, fearing national embarrassment.

PM Modi in the video clip is heard saying, “Brothers and sisters, today I want to tell you a true story.

When Pakistan suddenly attacked us, to be honest, I was in a terrible state. I did not expect that Pakistan would pounce on us like that. I completely lost my courage.

I immediately called Amit Shah ji. I found out he was hiding under a quilt in the basement of his own house. He said, ‘Prime Minister ji, I’m not feeling well. My blood pressure has shot up. I’m not in the mental state right now to respond to anything.’

Then I thought, surely our National Security Advisor Ajit Doval ji would have a plan. I found out he was sitting in a boat, escaping to Sri Lanka. I asked, ‘Doval ji, what are you doing?’

He replied, ‘Prime Minister ji, when it is a matter of life and death, even Chanakya’s policies are forgotten. Right now, the only plan is to run and save ourselves.’

Meanwhile, the army officers were asking me, ‘Sir, what are your orders?’ And my mind was not working. For a moment, I thought of returning to Gujarat. The next moment, I thought of going to the Himalayas and becoming a monk.

Finally, I sought help from foreign countries, and Donald Trump called. He said, ‘Modi ji, I thought you had become a Vishwaguru (world leader), but here you turned out to be a Panic Guru. This time for sure — Abki Baar, Panic Sarkar (This time, it’s a Panic Government).’

To tell you the truth, brothers and sisters, this time Pakistan has completely rattled me. Even in my next Mann Ki Baat episode, my mind will be filled only with tension. You people tell me what to do. Thank you.”

“BREAKING NEWS! Exclusive clips from PM Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha address, banned by nervous Indian channels fearing national embarrassment, have landed safely at Insider WB. I’m bravely sharing this exclusive, democracy saving footage with you first,” wrote an X account, The Whistle Blower, while sharing the video. (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the audio has been manipulated.

Discrepancies in the audio

Although the audio closely resembles PM Modi’s voice, it lacks the natural tone, pause and delivery found in his publicly available speeches. The voice appears more sophisticated and mellow compared to his usual speaking style. There are noticeable discrepancies between the lip movements and the audio, suggesting a possible manipulation.

Source of the clip

We noticed the Sansad TV logo on the clip, along with a ticker running at the bottom stating it was a special discussion on the successful and decisive Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam attack. The video also displayed the date as July 29, with the time shown as 6:15 to 6:17 PM IST.

With the help of these cues, we ran a keyword search and found PM Modi’s speech published by Sansad TV on July 29, titled ‘PM Modi Speaks in Lok Sabha on Special discussion on Operation Sindoor.’

We reviewed the video from 6:15 to 6:17 PM IST, as indicated in the viral clip, but did not find any statements matching the audio heard in the circulated version. Instead, PM Modi can be heard saying that this parliamentary session is a celebration of Vijay Utsav and Gaurav Gaan, marking the dismantling of terrorist headquarters. He also praises the bravery of Indian soldiers and asserts that he is speaking for India.

Referring to those who cannot support the nation, he says, “I am also standing to show them the mirror.” At no point does he appear mellow or fearful; rather, his tone is assertive and forceful.

For further corroboration, we reviewed the complete speech but did not find any of the statements heard in the viral video.

DAU Analysis

As a partner of the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), we escalated the video to its dedicated Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) for further verification.

In their analysis, the video was examined using Hive AI’s deepfake detection tool, which flagged multiple timestamps as ‘yes_deepfake.’ Notably, two faces were consistently identified as manipulated, one of them being that of PM Modi. However, the results were not conclusive.

DAU has further escalated the video to ConTrails AI for further examination. ConTrails AI analysis found clear signs of manipulation in both the audio and video of the clip.

While its system initially labelled the video as “borderline real” with 71 per cent confidence. However, the experts found visible animation glitches and unnatural lip movements, the signs of a lip-sync attack. Further frame-by-frame analysis confirmed this, rating the visuals as fake, with a Real Score of just 65.62 per cent.

For the audio, the model flagged it as fake, giving it a Real Score of 42.52 per cent. Though the tone and pacing sounded somewhat convincing, it still didn’t match PModi’s natural voice. Speaker P2 was identified as Modi.

The audio and video assessments, along with expert insights, conclude that the clip has been manipulated.

While we have not independently found sufficient evidence to determine whether the video’s audio was manipulated using AI, voice dubbing or voice cloning, we conclude that the audio has been tampered with. This is based on clear discrepancies in tone, pause, lip-syncing and delivery, and the statements heard in the viral clip are absent from the original video.

(Note: The story was updated with ConTrails AI report on August 5.)