Altered Video of General Anil Chauhan’s Retirement Speech Goes Viral

We found out that the video was digitally altered.

A video is being shared on social media, falsely claiming to show former CDS Anil Chauhan commenting on Operation Sindoor in his retirement speech. 

(Source: Instagram/Altered by The Quint)

A video has been making the rounds on social media, claiming to show former Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan commenting on Operation Sindoor at his retirement.

What does he say?: The video shows General Chauhan saying that he couldn't complete Operation Sindoor and that he was asked to resign due to fallout from political decisions. He also states that he felt he shouldn't have started Operation Sindoor since the armed forces didn't get a free hand.

An archived version of this claim can be found here. 

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

(Archived versions of more claims can be seen here and here)

Is it true?: No, the video has been altered and does not show authentic footage of General Anil Chauhan speaking at his retirement.

How did we find out the truth?: We ran a keyword search, and we did not find any credible reports or videos of General Chauhan stating that he couldn't complete Operation Sindoor, and that he was asked to resign.

• We ran a reverse image search on the video using Google Lens and found a clip posted by ANI of General Chauhan from his retirement day, which shows the same visuals.

In the original clip, former CDS Anil Chauhan thanks the three services and the Integrated Defence Staff and bids farewell to his colleagues.

He does not mention Operation Sindoor, Pakistan or the politics in the country.

We ran the video through Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector, a deepfake detection tool, which identified the audio as likely to be a deepfake.

Here is the result of Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector. 

(Source:Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector/ Screenshot) 

PIB's Clarification: The Press Information Bureau's fact-checking wing also issued a clarification stating that the video was altered using AI and that the former Chief of Defence Staff has made no such statement.

Conclusion: The video was digitally altered, and General Anil Chauhan has not made such a statement.

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