Recently, Gorakhpur MP Ravi Kishan from the BJP had posted a picture of him having a meal at a Dalit person’s house in his constituency. The picture received widespread criticism after it was pointed out that the MP can be seen having food and water on a disposable plate and cup.
आज #गोरखपुर में दलित भाई के परिवार में सह भोज किया । pic.twitter.com/yg1JV082yo
— Ravi Kishan (@ravikishann) January 14, 2022
Now, a 0:29 seconds long clip of the MP complaining about the smell of sweat while travelling in a car is widely being circulated on social media. This video is accompanied by a Hindi caption that suggests Kishan was talking about the body odour of “Dalits”.
The video was shared on Twitter by user @SatyendrayadavR, whose bio says that he’s the state secretary of the Samajwadi Youth Brigade and by @ManishCEO2.
सांसद रवि किशन ने दलित के घर मज़बूरी में खाना खाया? दलित का पसीना महकता है उससे बदबू आती है??
वाह क्या आज की राजनीति हैं 🙄
भाजपाइयों जनता को समझ क्या रखे हो ? सबका जवाब मिलेगा 🙏@Gyanpra65533145 @ARajesh_SP pic.twitter.com/MmPHuBKvAG— Er.Satyendra Yadav (@SatyendrayadavR) January 17, 2022
गोरखपुर सांसद रवि किशन ने दलित के घर मज़बूरी में खाना खाया?दलित का पसीना महकता है उससे बदबू आती है,क्यों जाते हो दलितों के घर?चुनाव के समय ही दलित क्यों याद आते है,खाना खाने का नाटक पुराना हो गया,अब नेताओं को दलित के घर जाकर गटर साफ करना चहिए और फ़ोटो खिचवाकर तुरंत अपलोड करें। pic.twitter.com/XoABVaNu3k
— Er Manish Rajak (@ManishCEO2) January 17, 2022
The video is viral on both Twitter and Facebook.
Misleading
A simple keyword search on Twitter led us to a tweet journalist Puneet Kumar Singh from May 16, 2020. This establishes that the viral video cannot be related to the MP’s recent visit to a Dalit person’s house.
ये गोरखपुर के सांसद रविकिशन है, और इन्हें मजदूरों के पसीने से बदबू आती है, वाह महाराज, क्या बात है वोट लेते समय मजदूरों के घर गए थे तब पसीना बदबू नही मार रहा था। pic.twitter.com/t5V54Vm00r
— Puneet Kumar Singh (@puneetsinghlive) May 16, 2020
It must be noted that while Singh claimed Kishan said that the body odour of workers smells, the audio does not support his assertion.
At around 4 seconds in the video, Kishan asks in Bhojpuri, “How many people have you filled in this [car]?” and subsequently says, “The sweat is smelling so much.” He was talking about the smell of sweat emanating from the car because it was overfilled with people.
We also performed a keyword search on YouTube and came across a news report by Live Hindustan posted on May 17, 2020. The video includes a statement from Kishan according to whom the video is from 2017 when he was campaigning for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wvCMmOKMLw]
Hence, an old video of Ravi Kishan was shared with a misleading claim suggesting that the MP made a distasteful comment about Dalits.
