Lighthouse Journalism came across a video clip of Prime Minister Narendra Modi being shared on social media platforms. In the video shared along with the post, PM Narendra Modi can be seen confessing to play Hindutva card in politics. Narendra Modi at the beginning in the viral clip says, “Hindutva has never been the election slogan of the BJP. Hindutva is an article of faith for us and is a card for us to play politics”. During the investigation we found the viral video to be edited.
Claim:
X user Manisha Chobey shared the viral video on her profile.
Check the archive version of the post here.
Other users too are sharing the same video with similar claims.
Investigation:
The viral video of 1.04 mins showcases a younger looking Prime Minister and an anchor taking the interview, suggesting that the video clip is old. However, the audio clip added after around 16 seconds sounds like anchor Arnab Goswami taking the interview of PM Modi.
Since the reverse image search did not lead us to exact results, we searched for old interviews of PM Modi.
This led us to a 24 year-old interview of PM Modi with Zee News. This interview of PM Modi in 1998 had the exact similar keyframes as seen in the viral video.
At around 10.05 mins the anchor asks him about his views on Hindutva slogan of the party to which PM Modi says, “Hindutva ye Bharataiya Janata Party ka kabhi chunavi nara nahi raha hai. Hindutva ye hamare liye ek article of faith hai ye chunavi khel khelne ke liye ek tash ka patta ‘nahi’ hai“.
Translation: Hindutva has never been an election slogan for BJP. This is an article of faith for us. This is not a card for us to play the election game.
Clearly, the word, ‘nahi‘ has been dropped from the viral video.
In another half of the viral video PM Modi is seen speaking about Hindu as a way life. The another voice heard in the interview is that of journalist Arnab Goswami, hence we checked the interviews of Arnab Goswami with PM Modi.
This led us to a transcript of Narendra Modi’s interview with the then Times Now’s Arnab Goswami.
When Arnab asks about the mention of Hindus in BJP’s manifesto, PM Modi responds about it being a way of life.
Conclusion: PM Narendra Modi did not confess to playing Hindutva card in election. Edited video clip of his old interview goes viral. Claims are false.
