Deepfake Alert: Did Shashi Tharoor Call Modi’s Policy a ‘Historic Mistake’?

A viral video claims that Shashi Tharoor called Narendra Modi’s foreign policy a “historic mistake” while praising Pakistan in the context of the Iran conflict. Our investigation finds that the clip is a deepfake.

Elections and wars are often the breeding grounds of misinformation, lies, and twisted truths. As technology advances, false information can be spread in increasingly convincing and subtle ways. Many such attempts are underway this time, and one such video is making the rounds as an authoritative statement by a politician—one that, at first glance, does not appear fake or misleading in any way.

A video of Shashi Tharoor is doing the rounds on social media, in which he appears to claim that Narendra Modi committed a historic mistake related to the Iran-Israel war, and is also seen praising Pakistan. The clip is being widely shared across platforms and received in different ways, with many believing it to be genuine.

However, closer scrutiny reveals that the statements in the video are not originally his. The clip is a deepfake, created by manipulating visuals from an authentic video and overlaying fabricated audio, making it appear convincingly real.

What is being claimed in the video?

On March 16, a Facebook account named Indian Community of Jeddah posted a video showing Shashi Tharoor interacting with the media. In the clip, he appears to say:

“Modi made a historic mistake; India cannot move forward by making friends with declining powers. The Global South is a reality; China, Russia, and Pakistan are now closer than ever; Pakistan has demonstrated the best diplomacy in the last seventy years. I believe we are going downhill… The legacy of building on the lives of innocent people in Gaza will not last in Netanyahu’s favor, and it will not benefit Modi either.”

The video is being circulated with the claim that Shashi Tharoor is criticising India’s foreign policy and Narendra Modi, while simultaneously praising Pakistan.

As of March 31, the post has garnered around 1,600 likes and 370 shares. The reactions are divided—some users praise what they describe as his “bold statement,” while others strongly defend Modi and criticise the remarks.

The post has also been shared by another Facebook user, Umanath Kakodker, who has around 8,000 followers, accompanied by a caption in Hindi reiterating the same claim. The video has further spread across platforms such as Instagram and LinkedIn, where it is being circulated with similar captions.

How did we verify?

Some users in the comments questioned when and where Shashi Tharoor made this statement. A few others also expressed skepticism about the veracity of the video.

As the video carried a watermark of Press Trust of India (PTI), we thoroughly checked the agency’s official social media handles. This led us to the original version of the video, posted on March 14 by PTI.

In the original video, Shashi Tharoor is seen addressing the media on a different issue. He says, “The Strait of Hormuz can only be opened through the end of the war because Iran has very few chokeholds on the rest of the world. At the moment, they’re very much on the back foot.”

He adds that Iran is currently on the receiving end of the conflict and that the balance of the war has been largely against it. He explains that one of the few areas where Iran retains leverage is by making global systems—such as oil supply routes, shipping channels, and airlines—more difficult and expensive by restricting access.

Tharoor concludes the briefing by noting that Iran is unlikely to give up this leverage unless those involved in the conflict are persuaded to call off the war quickly, emphasising that doing so would be in the interest of safeguarding not just India’s economy but the stability of the entire region. He further adds that the Centre should address the LPG crisis, which has begun affecting Indian kitchens.

The original video has garnered more than 6,500 views since.

Further verification through a reverse image search using keyframes from the video led us to multiple reports carrying the same statement by other outlets, including ANI and The Hindu.

This further strengthens our conclusion that the viral clip is a deepfake, created by manipulating original visuals from the PTI video.

To confirm this, we analysed the viral clip using Deepfake-O-Meter, a tool designed to assess the authenticity of audio-visual content. The results indicate that the video is 99.9% likely to be a deepfake.

In summary, Shashi Tharoor had only pointed out the disadvantaged position of Iran and explained how the disruptions in LPG supply are affecting households worldwide. He stressed that this crisis could be addressed only if the war is called off. He has not named other countries as seen in the viral video, nor has he taken a “strong stance” against Narendra Modi or praised Pakistan.

This highlights how deepfakes can be used to insert age-old political narratives of hate—such as praising Pakistan—while also creating the false impression that leaders hold opinions different from what they are actually known to believe.