Arvind Kejriwal falsely claims BJP worker tweeted criticism of Gujarat education system

On April 9, Dr Bharat Kanabar, a surgeon by profession “blessed to be followed by PM Modi”, tweeted a photo where people can be seen climbing a building presumably to assist students to cheat during an exam. The photo was accompanied by a caption in Gujarati that said, “In this country of 900 universities and 40,000 colleges, teaching has become a commodity in which both the buyers and sellers [referring to buying of seats] are shameless. The education system has been plagued by viruses like paper leaks, theft in exams, and fake degree certificates”.

This tweet soon became viral and was widely shared on Twitter with the same photo and caption.

ક” કમળનો “ક”તો બરાબર ઘૂંટ્યો પણ “ક્ષ શિક્ષણનો “ક્ષ”એવું કોઈએ ભણાવ્યું નહિ !
૯૦૦ યુનિવર્સીટી અને ૪૦ હજાર કોલેજોના આ દેશમાં શિક્ષણ એક કોમોડિટી બની ચૂક્યું છે જેના ખરીદદાર અને વેચનાર બંને બેશરમ છે.
પેપર લીક,પરીક્ષા ચોરી, નકલી ડિગ્રી સર્ટિફિકેટ જેવા વાયરસથી શિક્ષણ વ્યવસ્થા ત્રસ્ત છે. pic.twitter.com/JfPJMH5Lsz

— Mahesh Prajapati (@maheshp65026186) April 10, 2022

AAP supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal quote tweeted Kanabar’s tweet saying, “BJP workers have started questioning the crumbling education system of Gujarat. BJP could not provide a good education system in its 27 years of rule in the state. AAP will work with the people of Gujarat and all other political parties to change this system.”

The official Facebook page of AAP Gujarat turned this conversation into an infographic and circulated it widely on Facebook.

Fact-check

Even a superficial reading of BJP worker Bharat Kanabar’s tweet reveals that he did not criticise the education system in Gujarat but spoke about the Indian education system at large. Delhi chief minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal assumed that he criticised the BJP government in Gujarat since perhaps the tweet was posted in Gujarati.

However, even the photograph does not depict an incident in Gujarat.

Photo from Bihar

We performed a Google reverse image search on the photo and came across multiple news articles published in 2015, about parents climbing the building of an exam centre in Bihar to help their wards cheat. The photo has been credited to the Associated Press.

Kambara also made a tweet clarifying that the photo was from Bihar and that the aim of his initial tweet was to speak about those who plague the education system. He wrote in this tweet that his a BJP worker.

મારી ટવીટમાં આપેલ ફોટોગ્રાફ બિહારનો છે. મૂળ મુદ્દો શિક્ષણ ક્ષેત્રમાં પ્રવેશેલ બદીઓ અંગેનો છે.
આમાં કોંગ્રેસ કે આપ વાળા હરખાવા જેવું કઈં નથી.
૩૫ વર્ષથી ભાજપનો સક્રિય કાર્યકર્તા છું અને રાષ્ટ્રવાદની વિચારધારા નસ નસમાં છે એટલે ઊંઘમાંથી ઉઠાડીને પૂછો તો પણ “ક” કમળનો “ક” જ બોલાય જાય.

— Dr. Bharat Kanabar (@KANABARDr) April 10, 2022

Hence, a tweet made by a BJP worker criticising the Indian education system at large was quote-tweeted by AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal assuming it to be a criticism of the education system of Gujarat.