Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has slammed an AI-generated video in which he is heard praising Pakistan's decision to play against India in the ongoing T20 World Cup. A video showing the Thiruvananthapuram MP applauding Pakistan's reversal on its stance against playing India was circulating on social media. The video features a poorly generated clone of Tharoor praising Pakistan's diplomatic move.
“I think how Pakistan played is indeed brilliant. I don't know what they would do on the field, but what they did diplomatically is absolute brilliance. Indian cricket board was completely pinned, hands down,” a voice resembling Tharoor said.
He appeared to add that the incident “serves as a lesson”, adding that good diplomacy may help even a weak nation appear as a Goliath.
Shashi Tharoor Reacts
Tharoor dropped a post on X, reacting strongly to the video. “Ai-generated 'fake news” — and not even very good. Neither my language nor my voice,” he wrote.
Shashi Tharoor On India-Pakistan Clash At T20 World Cup
Earlier, the Congress MP had slammed Pakistan's decision not to play against India. "It is pretty disgraceful that sport has been politicised in this way on both sides, frankly. I don't think that Mustafizur (Bangladeshi cricketer Mustafizur Rahman) should have been denied his contract to play in Kolkata. It was the most unfortunate intrusion of politics," Tharoor stated.
He added that while he believed that Bangladesh's response was an “overreaction”, it was also a reflection of how the sport had been politicised, and said Pakistan was trying to show its solidarity with the South Asian country.
Other AI-Generated Videos
Earlier, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice-president Rajeev Shukla cleared the air over an AI-altered video attributed to him.
The clip, which showed Shukla's reaction to Pakistan's U-turn on playing against India in Colombo, was aired on a Pakistani cricket show hosted by former skipper Shoaib Malik.
In a post, Shukla said that the remarks attributed to him in the clip were false and urged people to report the manipulated content.
Pakistan had earlier threatened to boycott the game against India. After Islamabad decided to withdraw its boycott call, the India-Pakistan match in the T20 World Cup will go ahead as scheduled on Sunday in Colombo.
