A video has gone viral to claim that in Chhattisgarh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the first party who successfully built esteemed colleges like IIT, IIIT, NIT, IIM and AIIMS in India.
Chhattisgarh is set to go to the polls from 7 to 17 November.
Who shared this?: Along with several social media users, Congress’s social media in-charge Supriya Shrinate, official X (formerly Twitter) account of Congress and Congress social media coordinator Vijay Thottathil also shared this claim.
(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)
What's the truth?: This video is clipped.
Shah actually mentions about BJP successfully building these esteemed college for the very first time in the state of Chhattisgarh and not in India.
This clip if from his speech at Chhattisgarh delivered on Monday, 16 October.
How did we find out the truth?: On performing a relevant keyword search, we came across we found a longer version of the viral clip on the official YouTube channel of Shah.
The title suggested that the video showed Shah addressing ‘Parivartan Sankalp Mahasabha’ in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh on 16 October 2023.
The viral video started at 11:04 timestamp in this video.
In the video, Shah lists the developments taken place in Chhattisgarh during the 15 year tenure of the BJP in the state from 2003 and 2018.
At the 10:40 timestamp, Shah says that the Congress, the current ruling party in the state, has left Chhattisgarh in a poor condition.
At 10:47, Shah says, “We (BJP) made this (Chhattisgarh) into an education, power, cement hub and a huge healthcare centre. BJP also built NIT, IIT, IIIT, IIM, AIIMS and Livelihood College in the state.”
This shows that Shah was pointing at how BJP built these institutions in Chhattisgarh, and not in the entire country.
Details about the institutions in Chhattisgarh: We cross-checked the years these collages were established in the state and found out that these were established during BJP's governance in the state.
IIT Bhilai in Chhattisgarh was established in 2016, when Raman Singh from BJP was the CM of the state.
IIIT Naya Raipur was established by the International Institute of Information Technology University Act, 2013 of the Government of Chhattisgarh, it is a joint venture by Chhattisgarh State Government and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).
IIM Raipur was established in 2010, also when Singh was holding the office in the state.
AIIMS Raipur was established in 2012 under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna.
The Livelihood colleges are skill development centres which were proposed to be set up in all the districts of Chhattisgarh and this was established during BJP's governance in the state in 2013.
An exception: NIT-Raipur was founded in 1956 by the first President of independent India, Dr Rajendra Prasad and inaugurated in 1963 by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Later, in 2005 the institute was recognized as an NIT.
Conclusion: Union Home Minister Amit Shah did not claim that BJP established esteemed institutions in India, this speech was taken out of context.
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