The video of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval claiming that “more Hindus were recruited into the ISI than Muslims” is not a deepfake. The original video was found to have been shot during an event in 2014.
Doval had claimed that the video, which went viral on social media, was a deepfake to CNN-New18. In the 35-second clip, he claims the “more Hindus are attracted to ISI than Muslims.”
‘Doval told the news portal that he never made such a statement and warned that the clip appears to be a case of deepfake manipulation designed to distort India’s National security discourse. "Media tools are being used to harm national security, attempt to target India's counter-terror narrative,"he said.
This clip is taken directly from the YouTube channel that posted NSA Ajit Doval’s video 11 years ago.
He can be clearly heard saying that ISI recruited more Hindus than Muslims, and now he is calling it a deep fake. From which angle does this look like a deep fake?
It seems… pic.twitter.com/V3pGvR4esE
— Dr. Shama Mohamed (@drshamamohd) November 18, 2025
Netizens, however, soon discovered that the clip came from a YouTube video posted by the Australia India Institute on March 20, 2014, Deccan Herald reported. Alt News conducted a reverse search and found the 1 hour 17 minute video on YouTube.
In the video at the 1:04:00 minute mark, Doval says, "Let me tell you one small thing, now that I have been exposed as a person… the number of persons that ISI has recruited for intelligence tasks in India, there have been more Hindus than Muslims. The number of cases from 1947, more than 4,000 cases, probably not even 20 per cent would be Muslims. So it’s a very wrong concept. We will carry the Muslims with us, and we will make it a great country."
Doval made the statement in response to a question on India’s response to terror threats.
Deepfake technology or AI was not widespread during 2014.
In the video, Doval also says, “The casualties of Islamic terrorism have been Muslims 90% and 10% non-Muslims, and they are aware of it.” He also says that terrorism should not be viewed through a communal lens because when it comes to fighting terror, it’s not a “Muslim population” versus “Hindu population” issue but a national problem. |
