A public safety announcement became political messaging with a few edits
In the months before Delhi's February 2025 assembly elections, a familiar face became an unwitting instrument of political deception. Actor Pankaj Tripathi, who had lent his voice to a UPI digital fraud awareness campaign in September 2024, found that same performance surgically altered — its warnings about scams replaced with calls to reject the BJP — and redistributed as though it were a genuine political statement. The incident reminds us that in an age of editable truth, authenticity of image is no longer a guarantee of authenticity of meaning.
- A video of Pankaj Tripathi appearing to urge voters against the BJP spread rapidly across social media just weeks before Delhi's high-stakes assembly elections.
- The clip was shared by AAP's Rajasthan unit and amplified widely, lending it the weight of an apparent celebrity political endorsement.
- Investigators traced the footage back to its true origin: a September 2024 UPI public safety campaign called 'Main Moorkh Nahi Hoon,' still accessible on official social media pages.
- The editing was precise — BJP branding inserted, fraud warnings replaced with voting instructions — leaving the actor's performance intact while gutting its original meaning.
- The manipulation circulated long enough to reach a broad audience before being caught, exposing how easily a public service message can be weaponized in an election season.
A video showing actor Pankaj Tripathi in the role of a peanut seller, apparently urging viewers not to vote for the BJP, spread widely across social media in the weeks approaching Delhi's February 2025 assembly elections. Shared by the Aam Aadmi Party's Rajasthan unit and picked up by numerous other accounts, the clip carried the appearance of a genuine celebrity political statement — pointed in its timing, colloquial in its language, and convincing in its delivery.
The video was not what it claimed to be. A reverse image search of keyframes led investigators to the original footage: a post from UPI's official Facebook account dated September 23, 2024. In that version, Tripathi's performance was identical in tone and character, but the subject was digital fraud — not elections. The conversation centered on protecting ordinary people, including small vendors, from UPI-related scams.
The clip had been created for UPI's 'Main Moorkh Nahi Hoon' safety awareness campaign, a public initiative using humor and relatable characters to warn audiences about the risks of digital payment fraud. Someone had taken that material and edited it: inserting the BJP's symbol, replacing fraud warnings with voting instructions, and transforming a public service announcement into political content that never existed.
What made the manipulation effective was precisely what made the original campaign work — Tripathi's sincerity, his familiar idiom, his apparent connection to ordinary life. The performance remained real; only its meaning had been replaced. Viewers encountering the altered version had no obvious way to detect the change. The original, still visible on UPI's official pages, made the comparison unmistakable — but only for those who knew to look.
A video of actor Pankaj Tripathi circulating across social media platforms in recent weeks carries a claim that has proven false: that the actor was urging voters to reject the Bharatiya Janata Party in the lead-up to elections. The clip, shared by the Aam Aadmi Party's Rajasthan unit and amplified by other accounts, shows Tripathi in character as a peanut seller, speaking dismissively about voting for the BJP and warning that the party would misappropriate government funds if elected. The timing seemed pointed—the video spread just months before Delhi's scheduled February 2025 assembly elections, when political messaging saturates social platforms.
But the video is not what it appears to be. A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral clip led investigators to its true origin: a post from the Unified Payments Interface's official social media account on Facebook, dated September 23, 2024. The original video is nearly identical in form and performance, but radically different in substance. In that earlier version, Tripathi appears alongside a character identified as a moongfali seller—a vendor of roasted peanuts—and the conversation centers not on political parties but on fraud. The actor emphasizes caution against UPI-related scams, speaking to the need for vigilance in digital payments.
The UPI had launched a safety awareness campaign in September called 'Main Moorkh Nahi Hoon'—roughly translated as 'I Am Not a Fool'—and Tripathi's performance was created as part of that public health initiative. The campaign's message was straightforward: ordinary people, including small vendors, are not naive; they understand the risks they face and know how to protect themselves. The phrasing, the character, the setting—all were designed to reach audiences in their own language and idiom, using humor and relatability to drive home a serious point about digital security.
Someone altered the video. The BJP's symbol was inserted where it did not originally appear. The dialogue about fraud prevention was edited to become dialogue about voting. The message 'Vote for BJP' replaced the original safety warnings. The result was a piece of political content that never existed, attributed to an actor who had made no such statement, distributed under the banner of a political party seeking to amplify what appeared to be a celebrity endorsement.
The manipulation is clean enough that it circulated widely before being caught. Social media users sharing the clip had no way of knowing, from the video alone, that they were passing along altered material. The original context—a public safety campaign about digital fraud—had been completely stripped away. What remained looked like a political advertisement, complete with party branding and a clear call to action. The timing of its spread, weeks before a major election, gave it the appearance of a coordinated campaign push.
Investigators found corroborating evidence: news articles from September documenting the UPI's launch of the safety campaign and Tripathi's participation in it. The original video remained accessible on the UPI's official social media pages, a record of what had actually been filmed and why. The comparison between the two versions makes the editing unmistakable. What had been a public service announcement about protecting yourself from fraud had been repurposed as political messaging.
The incident illustrates a particular vulnerability in the current information landscape: a video of a recognizable public figure, performing in a character, speaking in colloquial language about something that matters to ordinary people, can be edited and recontextualized with relative ease. The performance itself—Tripathi's tone, his phrasing, his apparent sincerity—remains intact. Only the substance changes. A viewer encountering the altered version for the first time, without access to the original, has no obvious way to detect the manipulation. The video looks real because it is real; only its meaning has been changed.
Citações Notáveis
The video was originally made as part of a UPI safety awareness campaign about digital fraud, not political messaging— India TV Fact Check investigation
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
How did anyone catch this? The video looks seamless.
A reverse image search. Someone took a frame from the viral version and ran it through Google Lens, which connected it to the original UPI post from September. That's how these things usually unravel—not through obvious signs of tampering, but through finding the source.
So the UPI just had this sitting on their Facebook page the whole time?
Yes. The original campaign was public, documented, linked to news coverage. It wasn't hidden. But most people sharing the altered version probably never thought to check where it came from.
Why would someone go to the trouble of editing it? What's the gain?
In an election year, a video of a famous actor appearing to tell people not to vote for a major party is valuable political currency. It looks like organic support, like a celebrity has chosen a side. That's worth more than a paid advertisement.
Did Tripathi say anything about it?
The source material doesn't mention any statement from him. He made a safety video months ago. Someone else weaponized it.
What happens now? Does the altered version just disappear?
Unlikely. It's already spread. The fact-check will reach some people, but not everyone who saw the original. This is the nature of misinformation—the correction is always slower than the lie.