#FactCheck -Old Video of Former CEC Rajiv Kumar Misleadingly Linked to Recent West Bengal Election Results
Executive Summary
Following the results of the recent West Bengal elections, a video of former Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has gone viral on social media. In the clip, Kumar is seen questioning television news channels over their election-result coverage and alleged early “trends” before the actual counting process begins. In the viral video, Rajiv Kumar can be heard saying, “When counting begins, channels start showing trends from 8:05 AM itself, which is nonsense. The first round of counting starts only at 8:30 AM. We have evidence that leads were being shown before that. Is it possible that these early trends are shown just to justify exit polls?”The video is being widely shared with the claim that Kumar made these remarks after the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections Research conducted by CyberPeace Research Wing found that a 2024 video of former Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar is being misleadingly shared as a recent statement made after the West Bengal election results.
Claim
An Instagram user shared the viral clip suggesting that the former Election Commissioner made these comments in the context of the latest West Bengal poll results.
Fact Check
Using relevant keyword searches, we traced the original source of the clip to an official post shared by the Election Commission of Indiaon Facebook on October 15, 2024. The video was part of a press conference announcing the Assembly election schedule for Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
We also found the complete live-streamed press conference on the official YouTube channel of the Election Commission.
During the press conference, around the 26:45-minute mark, an ANI journalist referred to discrepancies between exit polls and actual Lok Sabha election results and asked whether such situations fuel doubts over EVMs among the public. Responding to the question at around 30:27 minutes, Rajiv Kumar spoke about the need for self-regulation in electronic media and concerns over premature “trends” shown during counting day. He said that exit polls often create public expectations despite lacking a clear scientific basis and questioned why TV channels begin displaying leads even before the first official counting round starts.
Conclusion
The viral claim is misleading. The video of former Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar is not related to the recent West Bengal election results. The clip is from an October 15, 2024 press conference held to announce the Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly election schedule and is now being falsely shared in a misleading context after the West Bengal polls.
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Introduction
India’s data centre sector is rapidly emerging as strategic national infrastructure at the centre of the country’s AI ambitions, fuelled by a combination of technological advancements and the global political economy. Estimates suggest that national data centre capacity is expected to rise from 1.2 GW in 2025 to almost 8 GW by 2030. With a funding of ₹10,372 crore, the IndiaAI Mission aims to establish domestic compute power and expand GPU infrastructure throughout the nation. Simultaneously, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 has introduced a form of “soft localisation,” empowering the government to mandate domestic storage for sensitive categories of data.
Together, this push for infrastructure aims to transform India from a passive data market into an active shaper of global data flows. Yet India’s current policy model differs significantly from the approaches being adopted in other major digital economies. A comparison with Singapore and the European Union reveals that while India is focused on aggressive data centre expansion, other jurisdictions are increasingly prioritising sustainability, efficiency, and digital sovereignty.
This raises a critical policy question: can India scale its AI infrastructure ambitions while accounting for the governance and resource challenges that other markets are now attempting to correct?
India’s Incentive-Led AI Infrastructure Push
India’s current approach to data centre expansion is fundamentally facilitative. The state is acting as an enabler of rapid private investment through fiscal incentives and infrastructure prioritisation.
The Union Budget 2022 had classified data centres as “infrastructure,” which enables developers to access cheaper institutional financing and long-term capital. The Union Budget 2026 further introduced tax holidays for foreign cloud providers using Indian facilities for global operations. At the state level, governments such as Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are aggressively competing to attract hyperscale investments through electricity duty exemptions, expedited approvals, and “essential service” status designed to guarantee uninterrupted operations.
This approach reflects India’s broader strategic positioning. As global demand for AI compute accelerates, India seeks to establish itself not only as a major digital market, but as a sovereign compute hub for the Global South.
The IndiaAI Mission demonstrates this ambition clearly. By seeking to scale domestic GPU capacity to 100,000 units, the government is recognising that compute infrastructure is increasingly becoming geopolitically strategic. AI leadership will now depend on the ability to control and secure the physical infrastructure powering advanced AI systems.
However, while India’s policy framework strongly incentivises capacity creation, it remains relatively underdeveloped in areas such as sustainability benchmarks, resource management, and operational accountability.
Singapore and the European Union: Governance After Scale
Singapore and the European Union offer models of digital infrastructure governance as rapid infrastructure growth starts to raise resource and sovereignty issues.
With the limited energy resources and land at its disposal, Singapore has shifted from unrestricted data centre growth to a tightly managed sustainability-first model. Through the Data Centre Call for Application (DC-CFA) framework, only projects meeting strict efficiency and economic value criteria are approved. For instance, new facilities are expected to maintain Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) levels of 1.3 or lower and submit detailed water efficiency plans to comply with advanced environmental standards. The country has also developed tropical cooling standards that allow facilities to run at higher ambient temperatures, reducing cooling energy consumption significantly. Rather than uninhibited growth, Singapore is now geared towards growth efficiency.
The European Union, on the other hand, is pursuing a sovereignty-oriented governance model in response to geopolitical pressures. However, it is still introducing energy reporting requirements and waste heat recovery rules into digital infrastructure rules through the revised Energy Efficiency Directive and proposed EU Cloud and AI Development Act. Simultaneously, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is being used to investigate hyperscale cloud providers for potential “gatekeeper” behaviour, reflecting concerns about excessive concentration of digital infrastructure power in the hands of a few non-European firms. This approach shows that sovereignty and energy efficiency can go hand-in-hand.
These models illustrate an important trend: digital infrastructure governance is shifting from the promotion of investment to sustainability, competition regulation and strategic autonomy.
India’s Emerging Governance Challenge
India’s current trajectory and global geopolitical tensions suggest that pressures regarding sustainability and sovereignty are set to intensify over the next decade.
AI infrastructure is resource-intensive by design. For example, a single modern AI server rack can consume up to 250 kilowatts (kW) of power, compared to a traditional enterprise server rack which typically requires only 15 kW. Despite the use of water use effectiveness (WUE) technologies, the sheer volume of heat transfer means that AI data centres can still put immense pressure on local water resources, especially in warmer climates. These figures juxtaposed against hyperscale clusters mean the volumes of electricity, cooling systems, land, water, and high-density compute rise by significant orders of magnitude. Yet most Indian policies remain overwhelmingly focused on fiscal incentives rather than long-term resource governance.
This creates the risk of a reactive policy cycle in which sustainability standards are introduced only after resource pressures become acute. Urban concentration, grid stress, water scarcity, and energy reliability may eventually force abrupt regulatory interventions which can lead to higher compliance costs and uncertainty in operations.
At the same time, India’s push for sovereign AI infrastructure also raises broader questions around digital sovereignty and institutional capacity. Procuring GPUs alone does not create an AI ecosystem. Secure hosting environments, skilled infrastructure personnel, cybersecurity preparedness, and interoperable governance mechanisms are equally essential.
This makes workforce development a strategic human resource development issue rather than simply an industrial challenge. Without sufficient thermal engineers, cybersecurity professionals, and digital infrastructure specialists, India’s infrastructure ambitions may struggle to translate into long-term resilience.
Building Governance into the Expansion Phase
India’s current “pre-regulatory” moment also presents a significant opportunity. Because the sector is still evolving, both policymakers and infrastructure actors have the ability to shape governance standards before constraints become restrictive.
It is vital to establishing national sustainability benchmarks through public-private technical partnerships, possibly under the aegis of of NITI Aayog, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and MeitY, before the next resource pressures dictate reactive regulation. Pilot “sustainability sandboxes” focused on liquid immersion cooling, renewable integration, battery energy storage systems, and water-efficient operations could help create evidence-based policy frameworks tailored to Indian conditions. Similarly, Likewise, collaborations with skilling institutions like NSDC and NIELIT can contribute to the development of dedicated digital infrastructure academies for thermal engineering, cybersecurity, and AI infrastructure management.
This would support India to progress towards a sovereign AI infrastructure stack, bringing together compute capacity, sustainability, capacity building and governance resilience into a seamless ecosystem.
Conclusion
With AI systems become increasingly utilised in finance, healthcare, governance, and public services, the infrastructure ecosystem supporting them will become equally politically and strategically significant. The choices India makes today to operationalise sustainability, skilling, competition, and sovereign compute capacity will shape the foundations of its future AI economy.
The central challenge is no longer whether India can become a major AI infrastructure hub. It is whether the country can transition from an incentive-led expansion model toward a governance framework that balances scale with sustainability, sovereignty, democratic accountability, and long-term resilience.
That transition may ultimately define the success of India’s AI century.
References
https://indiaai.gov.in/news/cabinet-approves-india-ai-mission-at-an-outlay-of-rs-10-372-crore
https://www.midcindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IT-ITES_Policy_2015.pdf
https://uplc.up.gov.in/en/page/uttar-pradesh-data-center-policy
A video of Bollywood actor Salman Khan is being widely circulated on social media, in which he can allegedly be heard saying that he will soon join Asaduddin Owaisi’s party, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). Along with the video, a purported image of Salman Khan with Asaduddin Owaisi is also being shared. Social media users are claiming that Salman Khan is set to join the AIMIM party.
CyberPeace research found the viral claim to be false. Our research revealed that Salman Khan has not made any such statement, and that both the viral video and the accompanying image are AI-generated.
Claim
Social media users claim that Salman Khan has announced his decision to join AIMIM.On 19 January 2026, a Facebook user shared the viral video with the caption, “What did Salman say about Owaisi?” In the video, Salman Khan can allegedly be heard saying that he is going to join Owaisi’s party. (The link to the post, its archived version, and screenshots are available.)
Fact Check:
To verify the claim, we first searched Google using relevant keywords. However, no credible or reliable media reports were found supporting the claim that Salman Khan is joining AIMIM.
In the next step of verification, we extracted key frames from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens. This led us to a video posted on Salman Khan’s official Instagram account on 21 April 2023. In the original video, Salman Khan is seen talking about an event scheduled to take place in Dubai. A careful review of the full video confirmed that no statement related to AIMIM or Asaduddin Owaisi is made.
Further analysis of the viral clip revealed that Salman Khan’s voice sounds unnatural and robotic. To verify this, we scanned the video using AURGIN AI, an AI-generated content detection tool. According to the tool’s analysis, the viral video was generated using artificial intelligence.
Conclusion
Salman Khan has not announced that he is joining the AIMIM party. The viral video and the image circulating on social media are AI-generated and manipulated.
Introduction
In the past few decades, technology has rapidly advanced, significantly impacting various aspects of life. Today, we live in a world shaped by technology, which continues to influence human progress and culture. While technology offers many benefits, it also presents certain challenges. It has increased dependence on machines, reduced physical activity, and encouraged more sedentary lifestyles. The excessive use of gadgets has contributed to social isolation. Different age groups experience the negative aspects of the digital world in distinct ways. For example, older adults often face difficulties with digital literacy and accessing information. This makes them more vulnerable to cyber fraud. A major concern is that many older individuals may not be familiar with identifying authentic versus fraudulent online transactions. The consequences of such cybercrimes go beyond financial loss. Victims may also experience emotional distress, reputational harm, and a loss of trust in digital platforms.
Why Senior Citizens Are A Vulnerable Target
Digital exploitation involves a variety of influencing tactics, such as coercion, undue influence, manipulation, and frequently some sort of deception, which makes senior citizens easy targets for scammers. Senior citizens have been largely neglected in research on this burgeoning type of digital crime. Many of our parents and grandparents grew up in an era when politeness and trust were very common, making it difficult for them to say “no” or recognise when someone was attempting to scam them. Seniors who struggle with financial stability may be more likely to fall for scams promising financial relief or security. They might encounter obstacles in learning to use new technologies, mainly due to unfamiliarity. It is important to note that these factors do not make seniors weak or incapable. Rather, it is the responsibility of the community to recognise and address the unique vulnerabilities of our senior population and work to prevent them from falling victim to scams.
Senior citizens are the most susceptible to social engineering attacks. Scammers may impersonate people, such as family members in distress, government officials, and deceive seniors into sending money or sharing personal information. Some of them are:
- The grandparent scam
- Tech support scam
- Government impersonation scams
- Romance scams
- Digital arrest
Protecting Senior Citizens from Digital Scams
As a society, we must focus on educating seniors about common cyber fraud techniques such as impersonation of family members or government officials, the use of fake emergencies, or offers that seem too good to be true. It is important to guide them on how to verify suspicious calls and emails, caution them against sharing personal information online, and use real-life examples to enhance their understanding.
Larger organisations and NGOs can play a key role in protecting senior citizens from digital scams by conducting fraud awareness training, engaging in one-on-one conversations, inviting seniors to share their experiences through podcasts, and organising seminars and workshops specifically for individuals aged 60 and above.
Safety Tips
In today's digital age, safeguarding oneself from cyber threats is crucial for people of all ages. Here are some essential steps everyone should take at a personal level to remain cyber secure:
- Ensuring that software and operating systems are regularly updated allows users to benefit from the latest security fixes, reducing their vulnerability to cyber threats.
- Avoiding the sharing of personal information online is also essential. Monitoring bank statements is equally important, as it helps in quickly identifying signs of potential cybercrime. Reviewing financial transactions and reporting any unusual activity to the bank can assist in detecting and preventing fraud.
- If suspicious activity is suspected, it is advisable to contact the company directly using a different phone line. This is because cybercriminals can sometimes keep the original line open, leading individuals to believe they are speaking with a legitimate representative. In such cases, attackers may impersonate trusted organisations to deceive users and gain sensitive information.
- If an individual becomes a victim of cybercrime, they should take immediate action to protect their personal information and seek professional guidance.
- Stay calm and respond swiftly and wisely. Begin by collecting and preserving all evidence—this includes screenshots, suspicious messages, emails, or any unusual activity. Report the incident immediately to the police or through an official platform like www.cybercrime.gov.in and the helpline number 1930.
- If financial information is compromised, the affected individual must alert their bank or financial institution without delay to secure their accounts. They should also update passwords and implement two-factor authentication as additional safeguards.
Conclusion: Collective Action for Cyber Dignity and Inclusion
Elder abuse in the digital age is an invisible crisis. It’s time we bring it into the spotlight and confront it with education, empathy, and collective action. Safeguarding senior citizens from cybercrime necessitates a comprehensive approach that combines education, vigilance, and technological safeguards. By fostering awareness and providing the necessary tools and support, we can empower senior citizens to navigate the digital world safely and confidently. Let us stand together to support these initiatives, to be the guardians our elders deserve, and to ensure that the digital world remains a place of opportunity, not exploitation.
REFERENCES -
- https://portal.ct.gov/ag/consumer-issues/hot-scams/the-grandparents-scam
- https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety/common-frauds-and-scams/tech-support-scams
- https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-avoid-government-impersonation-scam
- https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/fraud/fraud-mitigation/helping-your-elderly-and-vulnerable-loved-ones-avoid-the-scammers
- https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety/common-frauds-and-scams/romance-scams
- https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/fraud/fraud-mitigation/helping-your-elderly-and-vulnerable-loved-ones-avoid-the-scammers
