close
close

The video shows a politician from India's ruling party criticizing the opposition leader and not his party colleague

As India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) struggled to regain control of the state of Jharkhand in November elections, a video circulated in social media posts falsely claiming it showed BJP politician Shivraj Singh Chouhan as he insults one of his party colleagues. In fact, the recordings show him criticizing the ruling opposition alliance Jharkhand.

“Shivraj Singh Chouhan's big attack on Prime Minister Mohan Yadav,” reads a Hindi Facebook post sharing the video on October 4, 2024.

The video shows Chouhan calling out “power brokers” who have “ruined the future of children.” The Hindi text superimposed on the video said it was referring to Mohan Yadav.

Chouhan was replaced by Yadav as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh – one of the right-wing BJP's core states – after the November 2023 elections by party leaders (archived link).

He was later appointed agriculture minister and tasked with quelling widespread peasant protests. He was also appointed as the BJP's election in-charge for the eastern state of Jharkhand (archived here and here).

<span>Screenshot of the wrong post</span>” data-src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/wBW9HbG9NjbhdE5oLB7NBQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTEzNTU-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/afp_factcheck_us_713/07c4d4a155c12 c7bc8afec2ebff52ff6″/><span></div> </div> </div> <div class=
Screenshot of the wrong post

The clip was shared on X and Facebook with similar claims.

But Chouhan's statement was aimed at opposition leaders in Jharkhand – not Yadav.

Edited video

A reverse image search on Google found a longer version of the video, which was shared on Chouhan's official X account on October 2 (archived link).

The headline of the X post read, “The JMM-Congress coalition government has ruined the future of the children of Jharkhand. They had to walk from door to door. Jharkhand must be saved, the soil, the food, the daughters of this place.” must be saved – Shivraj Singh Chouhan.”

Chouhan was speaking after a BJP Parivartan (Change) rally in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh that day (archived link).

The BJP is pushing to regain control of the state from a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led alliance government in the November elections (archived here and here).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in fake posts (right) and the video posted on Chouhan's official X account (left):

<span>Screenshot comparison of the clip shared in fake posts (right) and the video posted on Chauhan's official X account (left)</span>” data-src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/UDO2AaOMsRdYzsyQgWiuuQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTYwMA–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/afp_factcheck_us_713/feec9f22527df4cc 71dca1d57746005e”/><span><button class=

Screenshot comparison of the clip shared in fake posts (right) and the video posted on Chauhan's official X account (left)

The clip shared in false posts corresponds to the first 48 seconds of the original video.

Towards the end of the video, Chouhan says, “And so it is important that we protect the land, livelihood and daughters of Jharkhand.”

At no point in the video does he mention Yadav.

Indian news agency Indo-Asian News Service also published footage of Chouhan's remarks on X (Archived link).

You may also like...