A video featuring two young women consuming alcohol in public is viral on social media. The video shows a youth recording the women while policing them about liquor consumption in public. The women can be heard furiously arguing with the man. Users are sharing the video and criticising Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Among them was BJP supporter Renuka Jain who wrote, “Congratulations Arvind Kejriwal for making Delhi the liquor capital.” The video received more than 40,000 views at the time of writing. (Archive link)
Congratulations @ArvindKejriwal for making Delhi liquor capital pic.twitter.com/ukbMJSVtFc
— #RenukaJain (@RenukaJain6) December 7, 2021
Under a new excise policy, the Delhi government will be out of retail liquor trade and private liquor vends will be set up in 32 zones across the city. According to The Economic Times, “Nearly 850 liquor vends in the Capital, including the 260-odd outlets, run privately, have been given to private firms through open tender.” The video is being circulated against this backdrop, to imply that the consumption of alcohol in New Delhi has skyrocketed to the extent that youngsters can be seen drinking openly at street corners.
Facebook user Anil Boolchandani also made a similar claim while sharing the visuals. (Archive link)
दिल्ली वालों ने फ्री के चक्कर में कोन सी मुसीबत मोल ले ली है ये जो केजरीवाल ने जगह जगह – ठेके खोल दिए है ना इसका नतीजा बहुत भयंकर आने वाला। हे देखो 👇
Posted by Anil Boolchandani on Thursday, 9 December 2021
Several users promoted the video on Facebook (Link 1, Link 2) and Twitter.
Fact-check
A disclaimer appears at the 1:07 mark of the viral video. It states that the video was made for entertainment and promotional purposes only, with no intent to circulate it under commercial use. This confirms that this video is scripted and dramatised.
A watermark reading ‘Mr_thakur1612’ can also be seen on the clip. Upon further research, we found an Instagram account with this username, run by a user called Sunny Thakur. We also discovered that he has a verified YouTube channel. However, we were unable to find the video on both accounts.
On November 26, 2021, Thakur shared a longer version of the viral clip on Facebook. The video was recorded near Delhi’s Rajiv Chowk area, which is revealed around the 6:30 mark. Next, at the 7:40 mark, a man can be heard saying, “The girls in the video are acting. They aren’t drinking alcohol. We have been hearing about a lot of similar incidents lately of people drinking in public, so we are creating this video to spread awareness.”
Alt News also reached out to Sunny and he confirmed this was an “awareness” video.
He had posted another similar video of a woman who appeared to be inebriated. According to the caption, this was a prank video.
A scripted video is, therefore, being shared to target Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal over youngsters consuming alcohol in public spaces.
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