Fact-check: "Nitish Sabke Hai" posters were put up outside JD(U) HQ amidst political crisis in Bihar? - Alt News
Kinjal
9th August 2022 / 8:18 pm
As per the latest updates on Bihar’s ongoing political crisis, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has resigned and is set to form the majority government with the opposition party RJD.
Against this backdrop, leading media channel ABP News ran a poster in one of its broadcasts featuring Nitish Kumar. The poster in Hindi reads, “नीतीश सबके हैं” (Nitish belongs to everyone). During the broadcast, the anchor clearly states that “new” posters of the chief minister were put up in Bihar by the JDU.
ABP News also tweeted a video of the broadcast on August 9. It is mentioned that new posters of Nitish Kumar were put up on the streets of Patna. (Archived link)
Republic Bharat too aired this poster during a broadcast, claiming that it was put up in Bihar recently.
News agency ANI also tweeted and wrote that the poster has been put up outside the JD(U) office in Patna recently. (Archived link)
In addition, NDTV tweeted this poster stating that it appeared in Bihar recently. (Archived link)
Other media outlets like Hindustan Times and Moneycontrol also ran this poster in their articles.
Several other organizations and users tweeted this poster in context with the ongoing political crisis in Bihar. Among them were News24, The Times of India, journalist Osama Zakaria, Aaj Tak journalist Anil Kumar, and Zee Hindustan anchor Saud Mohammad Khalid. However, none of these tweets have made any direct claims about this poster.
Alt News performed a reverse image search and found the original image in a BBC Marathi article dated November 10, 2020. It mentions that such posters of Nitish Kumar were put up amid the assembly elections in Bihar. Following this, Amit Shah declared Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate for the state. It is worth noting that in 2020, Assembly elections were held in Bihar, resulting in the BJP and JDU forming a coalition government.
Upon further investigation, we came across a video report by ABP Bihar from October 2, 2020. In this ground report, the correspondent states that this poster was put up outside the JDU office.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EodxdrvkBE?start=18]
Aaj Tak anchor Chitra Tripathi also tweeted the image on October 6, 2020. Below we have added a collage comparing the photo from 2020 with the one viral in 2022. Two men can be seen walking in front of the poster. Both of them can also be seen in the posters carried by ABP News and Republic Bharat. Apart from this, the wrinkles appearing in both the posters are also similar. Thus, proving that it is at least two years old.
To sum it up, had ABP News checked the reports of its own regional channel ABP Bihar, the outlet would have easily known that this poster was not put up recently, but in 2020. Along with the channel, a number of other media organizations including ANI and NDTV also ran it as a poster that appeared recently.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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