Amit Malviya says earth rotates clockwise, makes false claim about Rahul Gandhi’s Narmada Ghat aarti

Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar as part of the ongoing ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. Following this, Amit Malviya, the in-charge of BJP’s national information & technology department and member of national executive, tweeted a short video clip of Gandhi performing the aarti. He added that if Rahul Gandhi had known that aarti is performed clockwise, he would not have made a spectacle of himself in public. Along with this, he also claimed that the earth rotates in a clockwise direction. (Archived link)

If only “chunavi Hindu” Rahul Gandhi knew that aarti is done clockwise and there is a scientific reason for it (earth moves in clockwise direction and hence environmental frequencies are in sync with movement), he would not be making a spectacle of himself in public like this… pic.twitter.com/5ZebOFAFm6

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) November 26, 2022

Neha Sharma of BJP Uttarakhand, too, tweeted Rahul Gandhi’s video and wrote, “This is what happens when the son of a Catholic mother and Parsi father pretends to be a Hindu for electoral gains, he does aarti anticlockwise.” (Archived link)

This is what happens when son of a Catholic mother and Parsi father pretends to be Hindu for electoral gains, he does aarti anti clockwise… pic.twitter.com/YeTFBcVv2i

— Neha Sharma, pahadi soul ✨ (@nehadun) November 26, 2022

Fact check

Alt News first reached out to a priest to confirm the direction in which the aarti is supposed to be performed. He confirmed that the lamp is supposed to be moved clockwise during the aarti ceremony. It is worth noting that Rahul Gandhi is indeed performing the aarti clockwise in the video tweeted by Amit Malviya. Since the camera lens is turned towards Gandhi’s face, the movements made on his right side are reflected and shown on the left in the camera’s sensor/screen.

The Congress party handle had also tweeted the video of Rahul Gandhi performing the aarti. In this video, both Gandhi and the priest are seen performing aarti in the clockwise direction. This means that just like the priest, Rahul Gandhi is performing the aarti in the right direction.

नमामि देवी नर्मदे🙏🏼#BharatJodoYatra pic.twitter.com/3Bt312LLFw

— Congress (@INCIndia) November 25, 2022

Alt News examined several videos of the Narmada Aarti, Ganga Aarti, and Durga Aarti available on the internet. In each of these, the lamp is being moved clockwise. This confirms that Rahul Gandhi is, in fact, performing the aarti correctly. Articles covering the rules of aarti by outlets like Navbharat Times and Newstrack also mention that it is supposed to be performed clockwise.

To illustrate this, we have compared the footage of Rahul Gandhi performing the Narmada Aarti and a video of Shivraj Singh Chouhan performing an aarti. It is evident that both are performing aarti clockwise.

 

Does the earth rotate in the clockwise direction?

The Earth is tilted at a 23.45 degree angle on its axis and rotates from west to east. In other words, the earth rotates in the anticlockwise direction.

To sum it up, Amit Malviya falsely claimed that Rahul Gandhi did not know the appropriate direction in which to perform the aarti. The Congress leader was indeed performing the aarti in the right direction, i.e. clockwise. Along with this, Malviya also made the bizarre claim that the earth rotates clockwise. This is summarily wrong. The earth rotates in an anticlockwise motion from west to east – something that is taught to children in primary schools.