With polling for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections underway all over the country, we keep getting exposed to constant political messaging across digital platforms.
Some of these messages include speeches, graphics, statements, or even memes, which critique or mock politicians or their parties.
Since the misleading statements, or falsehoods, are repeated over and over on different occasions, it gets increasingly challenging to counter the mis or disinformation every time it surfaces.
For instance, The Quint's WebQoof published multiple fact-checks regarding the Congress' manifesto, which the BJP claims is heavily in favour of the Muslim community.
This claim – along with one of former PM Manmohan Singh's statement regarding 'first claim on resources' – had already been debunked by several journalists and fact-checkers, was shared, yet again, in a poll propaganda video on 30 April, which was taken down when this report was being written.
This reel has now been deleted.
(Source: BJP4India/Instagram)
However, several pro-BJP accounts and the party's supporters had already amplified the claim by then. One such post can be seen here.
A tricky part of this challenge involves putting out the truth to fight false narratives, when the falsehood has previously been debunked.
To address this issue, The Quint has put together a list of the most popular or frequently repeated claims that the BJP or its leaders have made against the Congress, against the backdrop of the general elections.
Note: This list will be updated every time a new claim is made, or a previously debunked claim is repeated.
The Congress Manifesto
The BJP has, through posts or speeches, targeted the Congress' manifesto for favouring the Muslim community, accusing the latter of "giving Muslims all the wealth" if they come to power.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while speaking to the media, said that the manifesto would confuse people, as they would ask "Is this a manifesto for Pakistan's elections or Indian elections?"
"The manifesto is more in the favour of Pakistan, less for India," Sarma said.
These claims have included statements regarding hijab, Sharia, 'special reservations', and people's wealth being gathered and "redistributed" to Muslims.
In one such instance, BJP Karnataka's X (formerly Twitter) handle shared a list of fictitious "promises" made in this "Muslim League Manifesto", which included all of the claims listed above, adding claims about mandating the hiring of Muslims and direct appointment of Muslims as judges.
An archive of this post can be seen here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, likened the document to "the manifesto of the Muslim League," during a campaign speech in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh.
A quick look at the Congress' 'Nyay Patra' debunked all the claims, which we mention in detail in our fact-check of this post.
The document discusses "freedom of choice of dress, food, language and personal laws," but does not specify any item of clothing.
It has no mention of the word 'Muslim' or 'Islam' anywhere in it.
The manifesto promises economic empowerment of minorities and ensures institutional credit to them, without discrimination.
The only section of the manifesto that related to a 'special reservation' spoke about raise the 50 percent cap on reservations for the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC).
On Former PM Manmohan Singh
In the now-deleted video, as well as a campaign speech in Banswara, Rajasthan, PM Modi, quoting former PM Manmohan Singh, claimed that the Congress government had said that "Muslims have the first right to India's wealth."
He can be heard making this statement starts at the 28:45-minute mark into this video.
However, we found that former PM Singh's statement, made in 2009, was taken out of context.
An archived version of the PMO's website carried the full text of Singh's speech, which made it clear that the former prime minister said that plans meant to benefit SCs, STs, OBCs, and minorities, particularly the Muslim community, would have "the first claim on resources."
"We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources," Singh said.
You can read our detailed fact-check here.
'War Rukwa Di'? MEA Refutes Claim
In an election advertisement, the BJP claimed that PM Modi had "stopped the war" between Russia and Ukraine, to safely bring Indian nationals home from the conflict-ridden areas.
The video, which ultimately ended up being fodder for meme pages, was widely shared by BJP's social media accounts and supporters, including Union Ministers such as Ashwini Vaishnaw.
The claim had first surfaced in March 2022, when the war had just begun. At the time, the Ministry of External Affairs' (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had clarified these claims in a press conference.
Commenting on the rumours about India 'stopping the war', Bagchi said, "extrapolating that to say that somebody is holding off the bombing, or to say this is something that we are coordinating, that, I think, is absolutely inaccurate.."
The Quint also addressed this claim in its 2022 report and its detailed dive into disinformation during elections.
'Only Party to Contest for Majority'? Not Really.
While speaking at a campaign rally in Maharashtra on 30 April, PM Modi said that none of the parties which came under the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) were contesting for a majority – 272 seats – in the upcoming elections.
PM Modi's statement can be heard around the 3:30-minute mark in this video.
However, we had debunked this earlier, when the same claim which PM Modi made was viral on WhatsApp and was sent to Team WebQoof's tipline for verification.
As on 18 April 2024, the Congress was contesting on 278 seats, and was yet to announce more candidates from some states.
Since then, the party has released six more lists, which have been published under the 'Press Releases' section on their website.
These lists carry the names of 27 candidates selected to contest the Lok Sabha elections on Congress' tickets, bringing the total to 305 Congress candidates, as on 2 May 2024.
'Deepfakes' and Artificial Intelligence
The party's accounts have been involved in spreading content generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to spread narratives and misinformation.
For instance, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's (BJYM) social media head in Uttar Pradesh, Richa Rajpoot, shared an AI-generated video, appearing to show Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal singing in jail, to mock the leader after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate. (ED)
It was also shared by BJP Delhi's office secretary Brijesh Rai.
On the other hand, when a video of BJP MP from Azamgarh Dinesh Lal Yadav, or 'Nirahua', linking unemployment with having children went viral, BJP IT Cell Head Amit Malviya called it a 'deepfake', accusing the Congress of using them to "mislead people, create unrest and sow divisions in society."
The video is not a deepfake. Several AI detection tools showed that it was a real video, and the journalist who shot the video, Santosh Khushwaha, told The Quint that he shot this video on 13 April 2024, around 3:30 pm.
Data v/s BJP's Claims on Terror Attacks, Unemployment, & More
Some of the most common claims which have resurfaced in the run up to the general elections, are the ones that have been on the internet for a few years now.
Sample this: An ad campaign by BJP claims that India saw 53 terror attacks between 2004 and 2014, and none since PM Modi came to power.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had made the same claim in 2021, when he said that barring Jammu and Kashmir, "there has been no major terror attack in any part of the country," since PM Modi came to power.
In our fact-check back in 2021, we came across the former Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy's response in the Lok Sabha, where he said that there had been six incidents of terrorist activities between 2014 to 2021 in the country.
There were six terrorist incidents in India between 2014 and 2021.
(Source: Lok Sabha/Screenshot)
On verifying a similar viral claim about civilian deaths in terror attacks since 2014, we found that 177 Indians had lost their lives to terrorist incidents between 2018 and 2021 alone.
(Swipe to view the Rajya Sabha response.)
Three civilians in India's hinterland died in terrorist incidents.
(Source: Rajya Sabha/Screenshot)
On Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal
Using a clip of Congress MP Ajay Maken at a press conference, where he was explaining what the Delhi liquor scam was, Malviya shared the clip shortly after Kejriwal was arrested.
Appearing to paint a narrative of INDIA bloc members opposing each other, the clip was shared without its original context.
Team WebQoof found that the video was shot over a month prior to Kejriwal's arrest, and that Congress leaders had publicly showed their support for Kejriwal after his arrest.
Manipulated Media And Communal Narratives
Just like Maken's video, BJP leaders' accounts have often shared manipulated media to peddle narratives.
In one instance, Richa Rajpoot shared a clipped video of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi, claiming that he made communal remarks against the Hindu community.
Rajpoot shared the reel on her Facebook page.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
Owaisi, however, was speaking about police atrocities during his speech, and clarified the same in a X post. For more context into his speech, read our report here.
Rajpoot also shared another clipped video mocking Rahul Gandhi's speech, claiming that the Congress was promising to hand out Rs 8,500 each month to youth who use social media on their smartphones all day.
The platform applied a label to this post, indicating that the video was presented out of context.
What was Gandhi actually talking about? Watch this video to find out.
In another post by Malviya, he shared an edited video of Rahul Gandhi, claiming that the latter had refused to accept the statue of deity in Maharashtra, accusing him of "Hindu hate" and dubbing it 'Hindumesia'.
The post was also shared by BJP Maharashtra's official X account.
During our investigation, found that the video was taken in Nashik, and that Gandhi had accepted the statue.
On another occasion, Malviya shared another video of Gandhi, where he asked a person to take the national flag off a stick.
Sharing this video, Malviya claimed that Gandhi asked for the flag to be taken down and went on to "insult and demean everything Indian."
X itself marked Malviya's post with a label, telling users that the media was "presented out of context."
Fact-checking organisation Boom looked into Malviya's claim, and found that in the longer version of the video, Gandhi had asked for a stick to demonstrate how central agencies were misused by the BJP.
Since all the sticks around him had the tricolour on them, he asked for it to be taken off so he could use the stick.
There are more than just the usual suspects when it comes to spreading disinformation.
Several BJP-associated accounts, including that of Union Minister Smriti Irani, shared a video of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's speech in Parliament, claiming that he showed support for BJP's '400 paar' slogan.
In reality, Kharge was mocking the party's slogan, saying that the BJP "won't be able to cross even a 100 seats."
Read our fact-check here.
DIY: With new statements and campaign speeches flooding social media every day amid this election season, watch this video to know how you can verify statistical claims made by politicians.
It's important to note that several of the fake and misleading claims continue to remain on the social media handles of the leaders, despite being fact-checked by multiple fact-checkers.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)