Clip of Ex-COAS Upendra Dwivedi Criticising Centre Over…

In June 2026, a deceptive video circulated on social media purportedly showing former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Upendra Dwivedi criticizing the Union Defence Minister and the central government. The clip falsely claimed that the General was resigning in protest against the handling of casualties during a mission known as Operation Sindoor.

What happened

The manipulated content featured a visual of General Dwivedi announcing his retirement, but the audio track was replaced with false claims alleging that the Army was being made a scapegoat for political decisions. The deepfake stated that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had hidden the number of soldiers killed in action and that military leadership was being blamed for these omissions.

Fact-checkers identified the video as a deepfake by cross-referencing the footage with authentic reporting from media outlets like ANI, DD News, and Outlook. The original, authentic video shows General Dwivedi speaking in Hindi about his pride and gratitude upon completing his tenure, with no mention of Operation Sindoor, political resignations, or criticisms of the government.

Technical verification further confirmed the manipulation. When the audio track was processed through Hiya’s Deepfake Voice Detector, it received an authenticity score of only seven out of 100, confirming the use of synthetic voice technology. Additionally, the Indian Defence Ministry issued a formal clarification on social media, explicitly labeling the viral clip an AI-generated deepfake and confirming that the General had retired according to standard tenure norms. There is no evidence that General Dwivedi ever made the statements attributed to him in the altered video.