Lighthouse Journalism came across a post citing Union Minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari. It was claimed that the Union minister had called the Brahmins as real Dalits today. During the investigation we found that it was not a statement by Nitin Gadkari but by actress, MP Kangana Ranaut.
Claim:
X user Suyash Anand Shastri shared the claim on his profile.
The post claims that Nitin Gadkari referred to Brahmins as the “real Dalits” of today, citing a report by French journalist Francis Gautier that highlights the severe economic and social decline of the Brahmin community. It states that many Brahmins are now working as manual laborers, rickshaw pullers, and domestic help, and are treated like untouchables in some regions.
Other users, too are sharing a similar claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation with a simple keyword search on Google. This led us to a 2007 news report, stating: At a time when nearly all political parties are vying with each other to please Dalits or other backward classes advocating reservations for them, ignoring the Brahmins, French Journalist Francois Gautier, having spent nearly two decades in India, finds it a prejudiced trend based on misconceptions.
We then ran a keyword search on the statement that was attributed to Nitin Gadkari. We instead found a report stating that the statement was actually made by Hindi film actress and now a Member of Parliament, Kangana Ranaut.
The report was published in 2021. Kangana had shared her views on X (formerly Twitter) in 2020. We found news reports about the same.
There were many posts on her remark. Her post has now been deleted from X.
In the next step of the investigation, we contacted one of the members from Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s team. He clarified that the viral post on X is fake and that Gadkari has not given any such statement.
Conclusion: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari did not say, Brahmins are the real Dalits today. Old comments by Kangana Ranaut are misleadingly shared as recent, attributing them to Nitin Gadkari. The viral claim is misleading.
