Lighthouse Journalism found a video being widely shared on social media platforms, the user claimed that the video was old and before 2014 Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that elections should be conducted on ballot papers since the entire world, even developed countries like the USA were doing the same and not on electronic voting machines (EVMs), but BJP is defending EVMs now. During the investigation, we found that the video is clipped and is being shared with misleading claims.
Claim:
X user Surbhi shared the video on her profile.
Other users too are sharing the video with similar claims.
Investigation:
We started our investigation with a combination of reverse image search and Google keyword search.
Through this we found a video uploaded on the YouTube channel of Oneindia News.
At around 35 minutes and 14 seconds, he makes a statement similar to a viral statement. He says, “Some people say our country is poor, people are illiterate. But brothers and sisters, most developed countries in the world use ballot paper in their elections, even today. But this is India, whom you call poor and illiterate, knows how to vote by pressing a button.”
We found the video on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s YouTube channel too.
The video was uploaded on December 3, 2016, when Narendra Modi addressed during the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Parivartan Yatra rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad.
We also found a press note about the event on BJP’s website.
We also found a news report about the same.
Conclusion: An old clipped video from 2016 where PM Narendra Modi made a statement about EVM is now being shared with misleading claims.
