Lighthouse Journalism came across a 35 second video of Congress leader Nana Patole being shared on social media platforms. In the video it was being claimed the stand of Congress on reservation is clarified and Congress is against reservation. During investigation we found that his clippings were put in a certain way. Using Nana Patole’s video clippings the video was being circulated with claims that the Congress is against reservation.
Claim:
X user Anant Kulkarni shared the video with a misleading claim.
Other users too are sharing the video with misleading claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video. Also, the mics that were being used had ‘INDIA TV’ written over them.
We found a screenshot from the video in a news report by INDIA TV.
This news report carried the video too.
The video was uploaded on the YouTube channel of INDIA TV four days ago.
At around 13 mins 39 seconds in the video, the discussion shifts towards reservation. The male anchor asks about his and Rahul Gandhi’s statement on reservation.
To which Nana Patole says, what Rahul Gandhi said is, when in our country everyone becomes equal, then we will think about reservation, what is wrong about it, Dr BR Ambedkar too maintained the same stand, those who don’t understand English they present these statements in misleading ways.
Further the anchor asks that former Maha CM Devendra Fadnavis has guaranteed that no one can end reservation to which, Patole answers, today, education and government jobs don’t have reservation, they (BJP) just say things, they have started to weaken the country on educational and employment front. This incomplete statement was carried in the viral video.
We also checked the Congress manifesto to see if the party is maintaining an anti-reservation stand. To which we found a few points in the manifesto, such as a 50 per cent cap on reservations for SC, ST and OBC, and 23 other points on reservation in jobs and education.
Conclusion: Altered video of Nana Patole’s statements during an interview goes viral to present the anti-reservation stand of the Congress. Viral claim is misleading.