AI-Manipulated Clip of Rajnath Singh Comparing RSS and Taliban Viral as Real

In his original speech. Singh made no mention about Taliban or compared them to RSS.

Fact-Check: This video is manipulated using AI.

(Source: The Quint) 

A video clip showing Defence Minister Rajnath Singh comparing the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and the Taliban and linking the two to Sanatan Dharma is being shared on social media.

What did he say?:

"This Afghan Taliban and our RSS Mahavir, both have one religion. RSS is from the Sanatan religion, while Afghan Taliban is also Sanatan. Our youth of RSS fight wars, while Afghan Taliban is also a religious warrior. India has a partnership with Israel, while Afghan Taliban is the child of Israel. India's enemy is Pakistan, while Afghan Taliban's enemy is also Pakistan. India never talked about war with Israel, nor did Afghan Taliban. We are one people. That is why India and Afghan Taliban will have to move together."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as the video is manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI). In his original speech, Singh made no mention of the Taliban.

What we found: At first, we divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image on some of them.

• It led us to a video uploaded on Singh's YouTube page, which matched with the frames of the viral clip. It was uploaded on 18 January.

• Singh spoke at the inaugural ceremony of Medium Caliber Ammunition Facility in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

• We went through the entire video but found no mention of the Taliban in Singh's speech.

• From 2:56 minutes onwards, Singh made a statement about RSS.

“Nagpur is like a magnet, it draws everyone in. I call it a magnet because the country’s socio-cultural organisation, the RSS, was founded in Nagpur. It is the world’s largest organisation, and that is no small thing.”

• Team WebQoof ran the video on AI-detection tool, Deepfake-O-Meter to check whether the video was AI-generated.

• Some parameters of the tool revealed that the video had been created using AI.

Here are the results by Deepfake-O-Meter.

Here are the results by Deepfake-O-Meter.

Conclusion: The viral clip is not real and is manipulated using AI.

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