Clipped video of Nitin Gadkari falsely viral as the minister taking dig at the BJP - Alt News
Kinjal
26th August 2022 / 1:53 pm
BJP leader Nitin Gadkari has been dominating headlines for the past few days after the BJP dropped him from its Parliamentary Board and Central Election Committee.
Against this backdrop, a video of Gadkari is being shared widely on social media. In this 39-second video, the politician is heard saying, “Stand up, it doesn’t matter if you don’t. My post is gone, don’t worry. I don’t care, I’m not a political professional. We’ll see whatever happens. I have also lived a very ordinary life. To this day, I have always been someone who eats at roadside stalls, watches movies from the third class section, and attends plays from backstage. So I like that life very much. When there are issues with my Z plus security, I drop all the guards at night and then set off for the sidewalk again. Because that’s where I often get reminded of who I was…”
AAP leader Sanjay Singh tweeted the clip and wrote that there is a lot of mess going on in the BJP. (Archived link)
आख़िर ऐसा क्यों बोले नितिन गडकरी जी?
BJP बहुत बड़ी गड़बड़ चल रही है। pic.twitter.com/woHE4mhNcn
— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) August 25, 2022
Retired Wing Commander Anuma Acharya shared this video and said that even the so-called common people were shown the exit by the BJP.
एक दो सामान्य सहज जनों को भी बाहर का रास्ता दिखा ही दिया BJP ने! pic.twitter.com/kX9xOIwHMW
— Wg Cdr Anuma Acharya (Retd) (@AnumaVidisha) August 25, 2022
Many Twitter users, including Delhi Youth Congress Social Media Coordinator Gaurav Chawla, amplified the video. (Link 1, Link 2)
नितिन गड़करी जी ये आप क्या कह रहे हैं?@LambaAlka जी pic.twitter.com/YilYcd76XF
— GAURAV CHAWLA (@GauravChawla84) August 25, 2022
Alt News performed a keyword search on YouTube, which led us to a clip dated August 23 on Nitin Gadkari’s YouTube channel. Here he is seen wearing the same clothes as in the viral video. We watched this video in its entirety. It covers a speech delivered by Nitin Gadkari during the launch of Dr Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay’s book, ‘Naukarsyahi Ke Rang’. We discovered that this video is being shared out of context with two different sections having been stitched together.
The first part starts at the 7:41 mark. Nitin Gadkari narrates an anecdote from 1996-97 during which he was a minister in Maharashtra. He claims that 2,500 children died due to malnutrition in the Melghat tehsil of Amravati district. This sparked a lot of international outrage. Expressing concern about the incident, the then Chief Minister Manohar Joshi said that there were 450 villages in Melghat, but not a single one of them had a road, so what could be done?
Gadkari states that roads were not being built in the village due to the rules stipulated under the Environment Act. This was the reason there was no electricity, crops could not be transported to the market, and children could not even attend school. Seeing all this, the politician decided he could not take it any longer and should take matters into his own hands. “So I said, Sir, this is not your business. I am an expert in this kind of work. So do one thing, leave it to me. I don’t care what the consequences are. And I will do it. If you can, then stand behind me, otherwise, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if I lose my post. That’s not a concern…”.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H337IRGgfgg?start=461]
In other words, the anecdote Nitin Gadkari is sharing about his post is actually an old story.
The second part of the viral video appears at the 19:13 mark. Here, Gadkari states that he is an ordinary person eating from roadside stalls and watching movies from the third class section. The senior leader mentioned his humble upbringing while talking about the significance of the book.
The office of the politician himself clarified the truth behind the clipped viral video in an August 25 tweet.
कुछ मीडिया संस्थानों और व्यक्तियों द्वारा चलाये जा रहे झूठे अभियान की सच्चाई। pic.twitter.com/O7v3MikOYP
— Office Of Nitin Gadkari (@OfficeOfNG) August 25, 2022
To sum it up, two disjointed clips from a speech by Nitin Gadkari were stitched together and circulated to falsely suggest that he made these remarks after being removed from the Parliamentary Board of the BJP.
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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