Video of woman praising BJP Karnataka chief on TV edited to falsely portray the opposite

Over the last few days, several social media users have shared a video of Karnataka state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel’s interview with Namma TV. The interview is in the Kannada language. In the 1:10-minute-long video clip, a woman caller can be heard allegedly lambasting Kateel and BJP for playing “divisive politics”.

The show has been hosted by the channel’s senior programmer and anchor Naveen Kumar Shetty.

The video has been shared on Twitter with the same assertion that a woman criticised the BJP on regional television.

ನಿನಗಿದು ಬೇಕಿತ್ತ ಮಗ್ನೇ ನೇಣಾಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗ್ಬಿಡು ಕಟೀಲ್ನೇ 😭😭😭😭 ಪಡ್ಚಾ pic.twitter.com/QLyBXvqAAc

— ನಿತ್ಯಾನಂದ. ಜೆ. ಮಾಳ್ಗಾಳ್ (@wGtYJhoZd1hvdyR) April 10, 2022

The caller identifies herself as Supita from Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka. She can be heard saying, “Hari om- I am Supita from Chikkamagaluru. Narayana guru was not limited to any particular caste. He did not distinguish between upper caste or lower caste or between rich or poor. He strived for only one thing for society that we are all equal. What are you doing? Creating conflicts between caste, and religions. What else is your aim? Where are your efforts to create jobs? You are pitting caste against caste, religion vs religion. What happened to your promise of creating jobs? You spoiled every leader’s and head’s names. Only god’s name was left. You are spoiling that also. God will not leave you. You are spoiling your own end. Don’t you have shame? Thoo. You don’t want to leave even god; want to drag him also in between your vulgar work.”

Alt News has received several requests to fact-check this on WhatsApp (+917600011160) and on our official Android application.

The video has also been shared on Facebook. A page ‘ಕಂಟ್ರೋಲ್ ಆಲ್ಟ್ ಡಿಲಿಟ್’, which means ‘Control Alt Delete’ shared the video but claimed it has been “poorly edited”.

Fact check

Using keywords visible in the video, Alt News searched for related content on multiple search engines and found the video has been lifted from Namma TV’s show uploaded on YouTube on June 6, 2021.

Alt News found that at 31:50 minutes, a woman named Supita called the channel however, unlike the claim on social media, she praised BJP state chief Nalin Kateel for doing “great work”. She also said that things are changing on a positive note in Karnataka. The woman further tells him to not worry about what people say about him and continue with his good work.

We reached out to Namma TV anchor Naveen Kumar Shetty, who hosted the said show. He confirmed that the video being circulated was edited and has been shared with false claims. He told Alt News, “Within days of the interview with BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel being aired, an edited audio clip of a woman caller was made viral on social media. After it came to the notice of our organisation, our channel’s manager lodged an FIR at Urvastore police station, Mangalore.”

Hence, a video of Karnataka state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel’s interview is being shared with the false claim that he was lambasted by a woman caller during a live interview by Namma TV channel. The video is edited. In the original clip, she praises Kateel.