A 17-second clip featuring Union home minister Amit Shah is viral on social media where he can be heard saying that when a BJP government is formed, it will end the ‘unconstitutional reservations’ given to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (SC/ST/OBC).
Congress Telangana’s official X handle shared the viral video with a caption in Telugu, which said, “Are there SC, ST, OBC minority brothers and sisters working in the BJP, which is playing religion-based politics? After watching this video, decide whether to vote for the BJP or not…”
The tweet has now been deleted.
Premium subscribed X user Uma Shankar Patel (@OBCUMASHANKAR) also shared the clip and in the caption quoted what can be heard in the viral video. The tweet has received over 67,000 views and has been retweeted over 1,400 times.
भारतीय जनता पार्टी की सरकार बनेगी तो आज संवैधानिक एससी एसटी ओबीसी का रिजर्वेशन खत्म कर देंगे:- अमित शाह जी pic.twitter.com/7rdc2TqNyo
— Uma Shankar Patel (@OBCUMASHANKAR) April 27, 2024
Several other users on X shared the viral clip and amplified the same.
Fact Check
We noticed the logo V6 on the clip, which indicated that the video was taken from a broadcast of Telugu news outlet V6 News. We performed a keyword search on V6 News’ YouTube channel and found a video of Amit Shah’s speech from April 23, 2023. The video is titled, “Union Minister Amit Shah Comments Muslim Reservations…”
At the 2.38-minute mark in the video, Amit Shah says, “When a BJP-government is formed, we will abolish unconstitutional reservation for Muslims. The right (to reservation) belongs to the SC/ST/OBCs of Telangana. They will get their right and we will end Muslim reservations”.
From the above, it is clear that the viral video has been edited. In the original clip, Shah spoke about abolishing Muslim reservation. In the viral video which is doctored, his words have been digitally altered to make it appear that he had talked about abolishing SC/ST/OBC reservation.
We also found the complete video of the public meeting on BJP’s official YouTube channel. The meeting was held in Chevella, Telangana. At the 14:58 mark of the video, the viral part begins and Shah can be heard promising the audience that a BJP government would abolish reservation for Muslims.
We found several news reports which covered Shah’s remarks last year.
To sum up, it is clear that Union home minister Amit Shah did not say that the BJP would end SC/ST/OBC reservations in Telangana. The viral video is edited.
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