India TV, OpIndia Falsely Claim ‘Modi Chants’ Raised in Pak Parl

MPs in Pakistan were shouting ‘voting voting’ during an assembly session and not ‘Modi Modi’ as claimed by media.

Fact Check of ‘Modi Modi’ Chants in Pakistan Parliament. Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Deepthi Ramdas

Mainstream media outlets, including India TV, Times Now, and right-wing website OpIndia, shared a clip of sloganeering in Pakistan’s Parliament to claim that several MPs raised “Modi... Modi” chants in the house.

However, a careful analysis of the clips revealed that this is a misleading claim. Pakistan MPs were actually shouting “Voting, voting...” and not “Modi, Modi” as claimed by the media portals.

Although the reference to Modi did come up several times, even then, the MPs only said: “मोदी का जो यार है, गद्दार है… गद्दार है” (Translation: Anyone is who is friends with Narendra Modi is a traitor).

CLAIM

According to the claim by news outlets and several social media users, opposition MPs in Pakistan raised slogans in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They further added that this happened during a session meant to criticise the alleged Islamophobic stand of French President Emmanuel Macron in wake of the beheading of a school teacher in Paris by a student, for showing a cartoons of Prophet Muhammad to the class.

Among those who shared the said clip with a misleading claim are news channels India TV, Times Now and right-wing propaganda website OpIndia.

An archived version of the Tweet can be accessed here.(Source: Twitter/India TV)

An archived version of the report can be accessed here.(Source: Times Now News/Screenshot)

An archived version of the report can be accessed here.(Source: OpIndia/Screenshot)

Others who shared the clip to further the same misleading narrative include filmmaker and serial fake news peddler Vivek Agnihotri, BJP leaders Shobha Karandlaje, Tajinder Bagga and news anchor Deepak Chaurasia.

An archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the tweet can be accessed here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the Tweet can be accessed here.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

Also, the clip was viral on Facebook with claims to insinuate that Prime Minister Modi was hailed by the opposition.

An archived version of the post can be accessed here.(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND

In the clip, uploaded by India TV, we can see Pakistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shah Mahmood Qureshi speaking in the country’s parliament. We searched Google for “Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s Parliament speech” and came across a video uploaded by 92 News HD, a news channel in Pakistan.

We realised that parts from his approximately 10-minute long speech were used by the aforementioned Indian channels to claim that, while he was speaking, Modi chants erupted in the house.

However, we used the YouCut video editor to listen to the video at 0.5x times slower speed and we could hear that the opposition MPs were actually chanting “Voting... Voting.” 

In fact, 0.15 minutes into the video, the speaker can be heard saying: “वोटिंग सबकुछ होगा… सबकुछ होगा” (voting will take place) in his attempt to calm the MPs.

We also came across tweets by Journalist Aditya Raj Kaul and Pakistani actor Fakhr-e-Alam, who pointed out that the MPs were chanting ‘Voting voting’ and not ‘Modi Modi’.

Further, 5 minutes 18 seconds into the video, when Qureshi refers to Balochistan and accuses the opposition of being hand-in-glove with India and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, members of his party raise slogans in Modi’s name by saying: “मोदी का जो यार है, गद्दार है… गद्दार है” (Translation: Anyone is who is friends with Narendra Modi is a traitor).

A report by Pakistan daily Dawn, dated 27 October, also detailed the chaos that ensued inside the house and mentioned that opposition members raised ‘voting voting’ slogans.

(Photo: Dawn/Altered by The Quint)

Clearly, several news channels and social media users jumped the gun to claim that opposition in Pakistan raised chants hailing Narendra Modi when in reality they were shouting ‘voting... voting’ and the only reference to the Indian prime minister was to state that “anybody from Pakistan working with Modi is a traitor.”

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