By Hazel Gandhi
A clipped video of a Meitei woman talking about the unrest in Manipur has been shared with the false claim that she criticised the opposition for turning a blind eye to the crisis in the state and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking action. BOOM found that the video has been clipped and shared out of context to make the claim; in the full video, the woman is criticising the central government for not taking action sooner.
In the 2-minute long video, the woman is speaking to opposition leaders Kanhimozi Karunanidhi from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Congress, and Sushmita Dev from the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC).
She is heard talking about how the issue of Manipur came up only after the video showing two Kuki women being paraded naked by Meitei men went viral in July. She questions why the issue was not discussed in parliament sooner, and how Meiteis have been suffering during the crisis as well. One of her statements 'Why not take this issue up in the parliament earlier? Why bring it up only after the viral video?' is being shared as if it was directed towards the opposition, along with the rest of her claims in the video.
Right-wing Twitter user Rishi Bagree shared the clipped video with the caption, "Listen to this Manipuri woman who is giving a piece of her mind to Opposition MPs who went there for vulture tourism."
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
BOOM has previously debunked several false claims made by Rishi Bagree. Read here.
The video is also circulating on Facebook with the caption, "Manipur girl who tore and hanged opposition MPs who went on a pleasure trip to Manipur... Modi jee will take care of us.."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Also Read:Video From Uttarakhand Misleadingly Linked To Haryana Communal Riots
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral claims are false, and the woman was criticising the central government for not paying attention to Manipur's issue sooner. A full version of the video shows the woman clearly saying, "No effective action was taken by the central government."
We saw the viral clip and found a logo of Republic TV on it.
Taking a cue from this, we looked for the full version of the video on Republic TV's YouTube channel and found a 4-minute clip titled 'Manipur Violence Victim Narrates Ordeal To Opposition Delegation At Moirang Relief Camp' uploaded on July 29.
The portion of the video from 1:51 is taken in the viral video. The woman says, "(Action) taken by the government, the central government. Why not take this issue up in the parliament earlier? Why bring it up only after the viral video? Why? And with the concern of Narendra Modiji, why bring up that viral video only? Prior to that (viral video), an old lady, who was the wife of a freedom fighter in Sero was burned alive in her home. Why not bring up that issue? If they are totally against crimes against women, why not bring up that? Not just that, on 4th and 5th of May, most of the victims and villagers were stuck in Churachandpur. They are rape victims. In Churachandpur, Meitei women were being raped. Why didn’t we stand up? Because we are scared for our future, we care. We want to save our future, which is why we don’t stand up. If you want to be with us, carry out medical tests for every woman. Have the Meitei ever burnt the houses of Kukis? Have we ever attacked them? They (Kukis) were the first ones to burn our houses, destroy our houses, and to ruin our futures. They destroy everything. We stay here with hope. Our parents take care of us, send us to school, hoping we become officers and take care of the family some day. To run a family is not an easy thing. They have been building that for more than 50 years. Everything was destroyed. And if they are still asking for evidence that Meitei burnt houses of Kukis, why not use satellite? They can prove everything. Why not use it? Why is the government still not effective, even after 89 days."
This part is being shared as if the woman is directing her criticism towards the opposition. However, we viewed the full clip and heard that just before the viral video's portion begins, the woman says "No effective action was taken by the central government" at the 1:49 mark. The word "no" has been omitted in the viral video to claim that the woman said that the central government took action, for which she is praising the government and PM Modi and criticising the opposition.
Here is a transcript of her full statement:
"Action taken by state government including implementing NRC and illegal immigrants… (not audible)… since they are staying in reserved forest areas. Nobody cares. More than 15,400 acres of land was utilised in Manipur for poppy plantation. With this, the Kuki militants are strongly against the Meiteis. But why? Why the Meitei? What is our fault in this? Why not ask the government? Why burn our houses and destroy our futures? We are youths… we are staying in our house with emotions for more than 80,000 years. Churachandpur’s name came from the King, Maharaja Churachand during his reign from 1891 to 1941. Churchandpur got its name from Maharaj Churachand. Now, the majority in Churachandpur is Meiteis but so far, during our stay here, we have not tried (to incite) violence against them. But now, all of a sudden, due to illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Burma… they are uniting together and making us homeless. We are residing here for more than thousands and thousands of years, since the time of our forefathers and ancestors. But now, it’s like we don’t belong here. No effective action is taken by the government… by the central government. Why not take this issue up in the parliament earlier? Why bring it up only after the viral video? Why? And with the concern of Narendra Modiji, why bring up that viral video only?"
We also found that nowhere in the video did the woman say that PM Modi will take care of them, as claimed in the viral Facebook posts.
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