No, this video does not show an Indian politician pointing a gun at an opponent during a live television debate
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on May 1, 2019 at 08:15
- 3 min read
- By AFP India
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The video has been viewed more than 25,000 times after being shared in this misleading Facebook post on April 24, 2019.
The caption in the post states: “TMC leader pulls out and points a gun at BJP speaker during a debate in W. Bengal. Mamata talks of democracy being in danger.”
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:
“TMC leader” refers to Rabindra Nath Ghosh, a minister for the government of West Bengal and a member of the All India Trinamool Congress party (TMC).
Ghosh is the man on the left side of the stage in the misleading footage, wearing a white top with a blue waistcoat.
“BJP speaker” refers to Nisith Pramanik, a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the city of Cooch Behar in West Bengal. His name appears here on a list of candidates for the BJP in West Bengal.
Pramanik is the man on the right hand side of the stage in the misleading footage, wearing orange.
“Mamata” refers to Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and founder Chairperson of the All India Trinamool Congress party. This is her official Twitter account.
The video was also on Facebook with a similar claim here, here and here and on Twitter here and here.
But the claim is false; the misleading footage has been edited from an original video of the debate which clearly shows Rabindra Nath Ghosh pointing a microphone at his opponent.
AFP located this original video published on a YouTube channel named Zee24Ghanta on April 8, 2019, by conducting keyword searches.
Zee24Ghanta is a subsidiary Bengali news channel of Indian television channel Zee News. This is its description on the ‘about’ section of its YouTube channel. This is its official Facebook page.
The video in the misleading posts is identical to the Zee24Ghanta YouTube video, starting from 10:04.
The misleading footage also has the Zee watermark in the right hand upper corner of the screen.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the Zee24Ghanta YouTube video (L) at 10:04 and the beginning of the video in the misleading posts (R):
At the 11:11 in the original Zee24Ghanta video, the footage shows Rabindra Nath Ghosh just before he points an object at BJP candidate Nisith Pramanik.
Below is a screenshot of this moment in the original Zee24Ghanta YouTube video, in which Rabindra Nath Ghosh can clearly be seen to be holding a microphone:
At 11:15 in the original Zee24Ghanta video, Rabindra Nath Ghosh points the microphone at Nisith Pramanik.
Below is a screenshot of this moment in the Zee24Ghanta YouTube video:
Zee News also used parts of the footage in this video report on its YouTube channel.
The video title states: “TMC MLA attacks BJP leader with mic in between debate.”
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