‘Fake AI videos still have a long way to go’: Sachin Pilot calls out fake clip on Oxford Union debate row

High-profile speakers had been announced on both sides — including former Indian Army Chief MM Naravane, politician Subramanian Swamy, and Sachin Pilot for India, and former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, former General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, and Mohammad Faisal, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, for Pakistan. Hours before the event, the Pakistani side claimed India withdrew, amounting to a walkover. The Indian side, particularly advocate J Sai Deepak, countered that Pakistan’s delegates had not shown up on time and that India was prepared to debate, sharing emails and call logs to back his statements.

Deepak said that days before the debate, Navrane and Swamy had become unavailable, and that their replacements, Suhel Seth and Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi too were unavailable, with Deepak suggesting two other persons to step in.

However, three hours before the debate, Deepak says that he got a call from the Union informing him that the Pakistani side hadn’t even landed in London. He later said that the Pakistani team was perhaps staying at the George Street Hotel in Oxford, the same hotel that was arranged for his stay, and said that the whole fiasco was a “collaboration” between Oxford Union under its president Moosa Hayat Hiraj, who is from Pakistan, and the Pakistan Embassy.