Two videos that appear to show Defence Minister Rajnath Singh saying damaging things about the Army are being shared on social media. Fact-checkers say both are deepfakes: his real footage with an AI-generated voice laid over it. He did not say what the clips attribute to him.

Claim one: "morale is low"

A clip circulating since the Diwali weekend shows Singh telling soldiers, in words roughly like "I know your morale is very low, ours too, but good days will return and we will become Vishwaguru again". Users shared it with captions presenting it as an admission about the Army's mood.

Verdict: false. The Quint and NewsMeter both traced the visuals to Singh's Diwali interaction with Army personnel at the Sherathang War Memorial in Sikkim on 8 November. NewsMeter compared the clip with the full address uploaded on his official YouTube channel and found that he spoke about paying tribute to martyrs, the courage and discipline of soldiers, and called each jawan a lamp of Diwali. At no point did he say morale or the government's standing was low or that bad days were here.

The Quint also ran the audio through the Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector, which flagged it as AI, and through Hive Moderation, which rated the speech 99.4 per cent likely to be AI-generated. It reported that the Indian Army's fact-checking unit has described the video as digitally manipulated and as falsely portraying Singh as acknowledging low morale during the Diwali celebrations.

Claim two: "the India-China standoff is not a big issue"

A second video claims to show Singh saying the India-China standoff is "not such a big issue", that soldiers are upset and "revolting against the government", and pointing to trade with China. A Facebook user posted it on 31 October 2026 with a caption questioning the government over reports from Arunachal Pradesh.

Verdict: false. Vishvas News found it to be a deepfake. By searching key frames, it traced the visuals to an ANI video posted on 26 October 2026, where Singh is actually criticising Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge over a remark about the Prime Minister's late father. The fact-checkers say AI-generated audio was laid over that footage to create a false impression.

How to spot a doctored clip

  • The mouth and the voice do not quite match. Pauses are even, and the tone is flatter than in a real speech.
  • The words do not fit the setting. A speech at a war memorial in front of troops is about sacrifice, not about failure.
  • No credible outlet reports it. A defence minister admitting low morale would be a major news story and would show up in agency copy within minutes. The Quint's keyword search found nothing.
  • A reverse search of key frames finds an older original. Both fact-checks used this step, and it led to genuine ANI footage.

What this means

The two clips use different original videos and carry different false messages, but they follow the same pattern: a real, recent video of a senior figure, a cloned voice, and a caption designed to look like an inside admission. Such content spreads fastest when it matches what some viewers already believe, which is also when it deserves the most doubt.

What you can do

Do not forward either video. If you want to check something yourself, search the key lines, look for the original on an official channel or news agency, and wait for a reply from the Army's fact-check unit or an independent fact-checker. Kahaan Kya Hua readers can send suspicious claims to hello@kahaankyahua.com.