This viral video, allegedly showing Indira Gandhi looking numb and unable to answer a question about the 1975 Emergency, is AI-generated

A video going viral on social media (here, here, and here) claims to show a real interview of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in which the interviewer asks, “By imposing the Emergency, whose democracy did you save—the country’s or your chair?” Gandhi appears numb and is shown unable to respond. Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.

The archived post can be found here.

Claim: The video shows Indira Gandhi looking numb and unable to answer when a journalist asked her about the 1975 Emergency.

Fact: The video showing Indira Gandhi being unable to answer a question about the 1975 Emergency is AI-generated. AI detection tools Hive and Hiya have confirmed this. There is no record of any such interview where she was seen not being able to answer such a question. In a 1975 interview, Gandhi defended her decision to impose the Emergency. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.

To verify the claim, we conducted a Google search using relevant keywords but found no interview in which Indira Gandhi was asked, “By imposing the Emergency, whose democracy did you save, the country’s or your chair?” by the male journalist shown in the viral video. We also found no archival record of her giving such an interview.

In the process, we found a 1975 interview, uploaded on 28 June 2025 on the YouTube channel of BBC News Hindi, in which Indira Gandhi defended her decision to impose the Emergency, stating that she had not taken away anyone’s rights and had acted within the powers of the Constitution.

Upon closely reviewing the viral video, we noticed that Indira Gandhi’s face has an unnaturally glossy appearance, a feature often seen in AI-generated content. To further verify, we analysed the video using the Hive and Hiya AI content detection tools. Hive flagged the video with an aggregate score of 99.8%, indicating it is likely fake, while Hiya also identified it as a deepfake.

To sum up, this viral video, allegedly showing Indira Gandhi looking numb and unable to answer a question about the 1975 Emergency, is AI-generated.