Video shows Indian ruling party politician criticising opposition leader, not party mate

Published on October 23, 2024 at 10:24
3 min read
By Sachin BAGHEL, AFP India

As India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vied to wrest back control of Jharkhand state in November elections, a video circulated in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed BJP politician Shivraj Singh Chouhan berating one of his party mates. The footage in fact shows him criticising the opposition alliance that governs Jharkhand.

"Shivraj Singh Chouhan's big attack on Chief Minister Mohan Yadav," read a Hindi-language Facebook post that shared the video on October 4, 2024.

The video shows Chouhan berating "power brokers" who "have ruined children’s futures". Hindi text overlaid on the video claims he was referring to Mohan Yadav.

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

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

Screenshot of the false post

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

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

Clipped video

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

The X post's caption read: "The coalition government of JMM and Congress ruined the future of the children of Jharkhand. They were left to wander from door to door. Jharkhand has to 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 that day in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh (archived link).

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

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

Screenshot comparison of the clip shared in false 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 thus it's 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 shared footage of Chouhan's remarks on X (archived link).

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