AI video of COAS Upendra Dwivedi saying Indian Army to reduce non-Hindu soldiers by 50% goes viral

by Prantik Ali

A video of the Chief of Army Staff, General Upendra Dwivedi, making controversial remarks about the Indian Army and claiming that by 2028, the number of non-Hindu soldiers would be cut by half is viral on social media. Users have circulated the video, alleging that this is an attempt to purge the Indian Army of those who don’t fit into the traditional Hindu caste hierarchy.

The full speech, as can be heard in the viral clip, reads: “Recently, our ranks have been debated whether non-Hindu castes should remain in the Indian Army. I’ve brought this concern to the Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, and his response was unambiguous. By 2028, non-Hindu soldiers must be reduced by over 50%. We have begun selecting out those who refuse to embrace Hinduism. If anyone wishes to convert, they may receive a five-year extension. But we will judge their sincerity before granting promotions. Indian Army, we are told, is for Hindus – not for outsiders, or descendants of so-called invaders. This policy is not about merit or loyalty, it’s about purging diversity. As soldiers, we are being told to trade our oath for an ideology. History will remember what is being done in these halls. 

X user @Baba_Thoka posted the video on November 4, writing: “Non-caste Hindus in the Army to be shown the door by 2028 because apparently, patriotism now comes with a gotra certificate.” (Archive)

X user @InsiderWB also shared the video but later deleted it. (Archive)

Readers should note that this user has been called out by Alt News for amplifying misinformation several times in the past.

Several other users, such as @MehboobQadir4, @SadiasOfficial, @zaryabali720 and others also circulated the viral video. (Archives: 1, 2, 3)

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The video, with the accompanying claim, was also viral on WhatsApp. Alt News received several requests on our helpline ( to verify the clip.

Fact Check

Recently, several manipulated videos of defence officers, including Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai and Colonel Sofia Qureshi, making controversial claims regarding the Indian Army had gone viral too; Alt News had debunked them at the time. However, that made us doubt the authenticity of the video featuring COAS General Upendra Dwivedi as well.

We conducted several relevant keyword searches to see if the speech had been reported on by any reliable news outlet, but found none.

Thereafter, we broke the viral clip down into keyframes. A reverse image search on one such keyframe led us to this video, uploaded by ANI on November 1.

The clip shows General Upendra Dwivedi giving a press byte at the TRS College in Madhya Pradesh, where he speaks about the lessons learnt from Operation Sindoor and lauded qualities like confidence, courage, collaboration, change, and clarity.

We went through the whole video to check if General Dwivedi had made the controversial remarks, but found that no such thing was said.

We then checked the viral video again and found the lip movements slightly inconsistent with the audio in some parts. This indicated the possibility that the viral video too was a deepfake, like the ones of Col Qureshi and LG Ghai.

To be sure, we ran the viral video through HIVE’s AI detection tool, which showed a 91.5% possibility of the clip containing AI-generated content.

Based on these findings, we could conclude that the viral video, which apparently shows the Chief of the Army Staff, General Upendra Dwivedi, claiming that the Indian Army has decided to reduce non-Hindu soldiers enlisted in the Army by 50% by the year 2028 is AI-generated and not genuine.

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