A video of BJP Jharkhand state president Babulal Marandi criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing the rounds of social media. He says in the clip, “Modiji’s 2014 promises are all unfulfilled. Now, they are making Hindus and Muslims fight among themselves either on the issue of cows, or mosques and temples, or religious conversion, or Love Jihad. People did not elect this government for that. The Prime Minister is playing a cruel joke on the poor. Who will vote for such a person? Whoever votes for them is the worst. The government wants people to fight among themselves. Do they want this country to become another Pakistan? If Modi ji continues as the Prime Minister, the situation in India would worsen over the next five years, and there would be increased communal riots. The nation’s progress would be halted. Who wants to see India turn into another Pakistan?”
Jharkhand went to the polls in two phases on November 13 and November 20, 2024. The results will be known on Saturday, November 23. Marandi’s words are being linked to the assembly elections in the state.
The said video was tweeted by Prashant Bhushan from his official X (formerly Twitter) account @pbhushan1 on November 16, 2024. He wrote in the tweet, “BJP’s Jharkhand president is speaking the truth. He is saying that if Modiji remains the Prime Minister for five more years, India will become Pakistan! There will be riots every day.” (Archive)
भाजपा के झारखंड अध्यक्ष सच बोल रहे हैं। कह रहे हैं कि अगर मोदी जी पाँच साल और प्रधानमंत्री रहे तो भारत पाकिस्तान बन जाएगा! हर रोज़ दंगा फ़साद होगा। pic.twitter.com/jrKZrnfrod
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) November 16, 2024
The tweet has garnered around 1.97 Lakh views.
Psephologist and activist Yogendra Yadav, too, shared the video (@_YogendraYadav) and made a similar claim. He wrote, “…Dividing the countrymen for power and spreading animosity among them is at the core of BJP’s politics. Unfortunately, there are many people in the country, from politics to media, who are standing with the BJP despite knowing this gruesome truth.” (Archive)
“सच सभी को पता है”
भाजपा के झारखंड प्रदेश अध्यक्ष बाबूलाल मरांडी इस वीडियो में भाजपा-मोदी सरकार के हर कुकर्म को पूरी स्पष्टता से बता रहे हैं।
सत्ता के लिए देशवासियों को बांटना, उनके बीच वैमनस्य फैलाना भाजपा की राजनीति के मूल में है।
दुर्भाग्य यह है कि देश में राजनीति से लेकर… pic.twitter.com/vAAvuSdHcD
— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) November 16, 2024
The tweet has around 50,000 views.
Several other social media users have made similar claims while sharing the video.
Earlier, on May 22, 2024, a similar video clip was tweeted from the official X account of the Jharkhan Mukti Morcha (@JmmJharkhand) along with a caption that read, “If the present BJP Jharkhand president Babulal Ji has spoken about Modi Ji and BJP, then he must be speaking the truth…”
मोदी जी और भाजपा के बारे में वर्तमान भाजपा झारखण्ड अध्यक्ष बाबूलाल जी ने बोला है तो सच ही बोला होगा…. pic.twitter.com/WPqiIh5O67
— Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (@JmmJharkhand) May 22, 2024
Fact Check
After breaking the video into multiple keyframes, we ran a reverse image search on a few. This led us to the original video posted on Facebook by a journalist, Ashok Gope, on December 14, 2018.
बीजेपी को वोट देने वाले समाज के घटिया लोग ….बाबूलाल मरांडी
Posted by Ashok Gope on Friday 14 December 2018
The chronology of Babulal Marandi’s political career becomes important here. Marandi was the first chief minister of Jharkhand from the BJP when the state was formed in 2000. He broke away with the BJP in 2006 and formed the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM). In 2018, when the video was shot, he was not a part of the BJP. In 2020, however, the JVM merged with the BJP. In 2023, Marandi was appointed the head of the BJP’s Jharkhand state unit.
We came across another video on Facebook uploaded by a local media outlet named Taaza Jharkhand on the same day, i.e., December 14, 2018. This is a different part of the same interview and Marandi can be heard speaking about the controversial Rafale deal. The video introduces the speaker as Babulal Marandi, supremo, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha.
As the opposition leader at the time, Marandi frequently and strongly criticized PM Modi. Numerous news reports attest to that fact.
To sum up, the video where BJP Jharkhand president Babulal Marandi is seen criticizing PM Modi is not a recent one. The video is from December 2018, when Marandi was president of the JVM and not a part of the BJP.
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