Digits 6, 0 Removed From Maths Syllabus? No, Dharmendra Pradhan’s Clip Is Edited

AI-detection tool Hive Moderation revealed that it was 80% likely that the visual was created using AI.

A clip featuring Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is circulating on social media with the claim that he declared the government would eliminate the digits six and zero from the Maths curriculum.

• The video additionally shows him purportedly associating the action with Pakistan shooting down six Indian jets, during Operation Sindoor, framing it as an element of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempt to 'glorify the culture and remove the painful parts' of history.

Here's what he said in the viral video:

We have created a huge paradigm shift. We have completely changed the curriculum especially in Maths. Ever since Pakistan downed our six Indian jets, we have decided to remove the numbers six and zero from out Maths syllabus. This speaks a lot about Prime Minister Modi's attempt to glorify our culture and remove the painful parts which we do not want to process as they cannot be a part of our history.

Dharmendra Pradhan in the viral video.

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

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as this video has been digitally altered using artificial intelligence (AI).

• AI-detection tool Hive Moderation also concluded that the video was 80% likely created using AI.

• In the original video, we did not find Pradhan speaking about a change in the Maths curriculum.

What we found: At first, we ran a relevant keyword search to check if such a decision had been taken by the Education Ministry; however, we did not find any credible reports or official press notes to prove the same.

• We, then, looked for recent public appearances made by Pradhan and found one where he spoke on a panel at The Hindu's "The Hindu Mind," on 22 September.

• We matched the frames of the two videos and found similarities in Pradhan's outfit and background.

• We went through the entire stream. However, we did not find any mention of removing certain digits from the Maths syllabus, as claimed in the viral video.

Team WebQoof also spotted a few irregularities in the lip movement when Pradhan spoke in the viral video.

• We slowed the speed of the clip and noticed that around the time when he spoke about Pakistan and the Indian jets, the lip movement and words spoken did not exactly match.

AI-detection tools: We ran the viral video through Hive Moderation which concluded it was likely that around 80.5 per cent of the video contained AI-generated content.

We also did not find any official statement from Pradhan or any other official confirming the assets lost by India during the armed combat against Pakistan.

Conclusion: A video of Pradhan altered using AI has gone viral to falsely claim that the government removed 0-6 digits in the Maths syllabus because Pakistan shot down six Indian jets during Operation Sindoor.

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