By Srijit Das
An altered video of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav is circulating with a false claim that he played Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at a campaign where the latter accused the party of being involved in a Rs 1000 crore scam.
The video shows Yadav holding a portable bluetooth speaker in front of a microphone at an election rally as Modi's voice can be heard in the background. Modi can be heard saying in Hindi, "RJD... there are allegations of corruption worth Rs 1000 crore... fodder scam (Chara Ghotala), coal tar scam (Alkatra Ghotala), animal husbandry shed scam (Pashupalan Shed Ghotala), flood relief scam (Baad Rahat Ghotala)... The list of RJD scams is so extensive that even the courts are tired. They are handing out punishments one after another."
In the original video Yadav plays a recording of PM Modi's earlier speeches in which he makes promises, later Yadav alleges that he failed to fulfill the same during his tenure as a Prime Minister. BOOM also found that the viral video has been overlaid with an audio from an excerpt of PM Modi's speech delivered in Bhopal, in June, 2023.
A verified X handle @jpsin1 posted the video with a sarcastic caption, "Tejashwi Yadav is making the public listen to Modi's speech".
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a related keyword search on Google and found an article published by Hindustan Times on May 1, 2024. The article reported that Tejashwi Yadav played a compilation of Narendra Modi's old speeches from a portable bluetooth speaker during an election rally in Bihar's Madhubani district.
The report also carried a post from Yadav's official X account, stating that the RJD leader played the recording to highlight the significant disparity between PM Modi's words and actions.
We found Yadav's post featuring the same video on the X platform, which was captioned as, "Yesterday in the election meeting a friend brought Portable Bluetooth Speaker to me. What is in it? You should also listen to it and make others listen to it. The public is now listening to and telling the Prime Minister the promises made in 10 years on speaker. So many lies have been told that it is now beyond comprehension. These people can say and do anything to divert the attention of the public. One should not lie so much while being in such a high position in public life. Say only what you can do."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
The video was streamed live from Yadav's official Facebook page on April 30, 2024, during his public rally in Madhubani. Starting at the 8:09 mark in the video, Yadav plays a compilation of Modi's old speeches.
Click here to view the post.
In his speeches, Modi is heard launching attacks on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA-led government regarding inflation, the increase in gas cylinder prices, and his pledges of a Rs 1.25 lakh crore package by the central government. The compilation also covers Modi's previous comments regarding farmers, discussions about providing 15-20 lakhs to poor people, commitments to bring back black money to the country, and his appealin 2016 to citizens to hold him accountable after 50 days if they find any faults in his decision on demonetisation.
The recordings, however, did not include Modi's allegations of corruption against the RJD, as heard in the viral video.
Overlaid Audio from a June, 2023 speech
Further, upon related keyword search we found the viral overlaid audio of PM Modi. The excerpt was taken from a speech delivered by Modi in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on June 27, 2023. The segment can be heard from 1:52:48 to 1:53:25 minutes in the video.
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