A clip of around 17-second length containing a speech by Union home minister Amit Shah is viral on social media. In the clip, the BJP leader can be heard talking about the esteemed educational institutions in the country such as NIT, IIT, IIIT, IIM and AIIMS. He seems to be claiming that these institutions were built by the BJP government.
On X (formerly Twitter), several prominent handles associated with the Opposition camp have shared the clip calling out the ‘lies’ by the home minister and ‘fact-checking’ his statement.
The Congress’ official X handle shared a 2.53-minute clip with a background score where the above-mentioned statement by Shah is followed by commentary on his ‘lies’ and various commonly shared comical/spoof videos. In the clip, a presenter ‘fact-checks’ the statement by Amit Shah. She also brings up the recent false claim by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that AIIMS Darbhanga had been made fully operational. (Archive)
BJP ने झूठ बोलने में सारे रिकॉर्ड तोड़ दिए हैं। pic.twitter.com/QlRprJlYQl
— Congress (@INCIndia) October 17, 2023
Congress’s social media in-charge Supriya Shrinate shared an 18-second video of Shah’s statement with a caption in Hindi that can be translated as follows: “Amit Shah ji, you were born in 1964 but you are an embodiment of lies, but this one is too much even for you! This was the foresight of Pandit Nehru – the first IIT, IIM, AIIMS, NIT of this country were built even before your birth.
•1951 first IIT Kharagpur
• 1956 First AIIMS Delhi
• 1959 1st NIT Warangal
•1961 First IIM Kolkata
Like you all, Nehru neither did petty politics nor whined – he used to build the nation. You also try – apart from a WhatsApp University spreading lies, your score is nil and silence!” (Archive)
अमित शाह जी आपकी पैदाइश 1964 की है पर आप झूठ के पुतले हैं, लेकिन यह वाला तो आपके हिसाब से भी थोड़ा ज़्यादा हो गया!
यह पंडित नेहरू की दूरदर्शिता थी- इस देश के पहले IIT, IIM, AIIMS, NIT आपके जन्म से पहले ही बन चुके थे
•1951 पहला IIT खड़गपुर
• 1956 पहला AIIMS दिल्ली
• 1959… pic.twitter.com/Q8TZjIbcri— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) October 17, 2023
Congress national convenor Ruchira Chaturvedi (@RuchiraC) also shared the 17-second clip with the following caption: “Comedy nights with Motabhai (meaning elder brother in Gujarat). 🤣🤣🤣 They are saying that BJP created IIT, IIM, AIIMS first in the country.” (Archive)
Comedy nights with मोटाभाई 🤣🤣🤣
ये कह रहे हैं कि देश में सबसे पहले IIT, IIM, AIIMS भाजपा ने बनाए। pic.twitter.com/4C79pFVf4M
— Ruchira Chaturvedi (@RuchiraC) October 17, 2023
Several other Opposition members and official pages of the political parties such as @vijaythottathil, @INCKerala, @dharunkumaran, @Politics_2022_, @SevadalTR, @RadhikaBarman5, @RahamanFatebul. Other X Blue users such as @nkk_123, @tanmoyofc, @Puneetvizh also shared the clip with similar claims.
Fact Check
On performing a keyword search, we found a longer version of the viral clip on the official YouTube channel of home minister Amit Shah.
The video is titled: “HM Shri Amit Shah addresses ‘Parivartan Sankalp Mahasabha’ in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh (16 Oct 2023)”. This suggests that Amit Shah delivered the speech in Chhattisgarh at an election rally on October 16.
The Congress-ruled state will go to the polls in November. The first phase is to be held on November 7 and the second and last on November 17.
The viral bit of the video starts from the 11:04 mark in the above video. Before that, at the 9:18-minute mark, the home minister can be heard appealing to the voters present in the crowd to vote for BJP in the coming elections for a better Chhattisgarh. From the 9:46 mark of the video, Amit Shah goes on to list the developments that have taken place during the 15-year tenure of the BJP in the state. BJP leader Raman Singh held the office of chief minister of Chhattisgarh between 2003 and 2018.
At the 10:39 mark, Shah says that the Congress, which is presently in office in the state, had left Chhattisgarh in a poor condition before BJP came to power in 2003. At 10:47, Shah could be heard saying in Hindi: “We made this (Chhattisgarh) into an education, power, cement hub …(unintelligible) … and a huge centre for healthcare. BJP built NIT, IIT, IIIT, IIM, AIIMS and Livelihood College.” This shows that Shah was talking about the building of these institutions in Chhattisgarh, and not in terms of the entire country.
As per the website of IIT Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, the institute was established in 2016. The then Chhattisgarh chief minisyter and BJP leader Raman Singh inaugurated the institution. The official website of IIM Raipur also states that the institute was established in 2010, while Raman Singh was holding the office in the state. As per the official website of IIIT Naya Raipur, the institute was established as a joint effort of NTPC and the state government as per the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) University Act, 2013. The Raman Singh-led state government brought the Act into force on January 28, 2014. The new IIIT campus was inaugurated by BJP leader Piyush Goyal in 2015. AIIMS Raipur began its journey in 2012 along with five more such facilities across the country (in Patna, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur and Rishikesh) under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna. The announcement for these six institutes in the model of AIIMS-Delhi was made by former Prime Minister the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his Independence Day speech in 2003.
Home minister Amit Shah also mentioned livelihood colleges. These are skill development centres which were proposed to be set up in all the districts of Chhattisgarh. The idea was mooted by the BJP-led state government in 2013.
However, the NIT-Raipur was founded by the first President of independent India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, in 1956 and inaugurated by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1963. Later, in 2005 the institute was recognized as an NIT.
To sum up, it is clear that Amit Shah did not claim that BJP had built all the esteemed institutions in the country. Shah’s speech was made in the context of Chhattisgarh and his words in the viral 17-second clip have been taken out of context.
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