A clipped video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech is being shared with the claim that he is promoting the idea of caste-based violence and the idea of revenge in the name of creating a pro-Hindu nation.
In the video, Modi can be heard saying that an individual who has faced difficulties due to caste-based discrimination will grab the first opportunity to take revenge.
Social media users have shared the post criticising the PM for 'cheating the citizens of the country in the name of making India a pro-Hindu nation.'
However, we found that the shared video is a trimmed version of the original. A longer video shows Modi talking about Babasaheb Ambedkar and how even after the latter faced so many difficulties due to casteism, he never showed any signs of bitterness or revenge.
The full clip is from the Dr Ambedkar Memorial Lecture, which the PM delivered in March 2016 in Delhi.
CLAIM
The viral post was shared with a caption in Hindi, "ध्यान से सुनो हिन्दुराष्ट्र के नाम का चूरन दिया जा रहा है पूरा जातिवाद तो यहां भरा पड़ा है।"
(Translation: Listen carefully, the name of Hindu Rashtra is being given, the whole casteism is full here.)
WHAT WE FOUND
We fragmented the video into several keyframes using InVID, a Google Chrome extension, and performed a reverse image search, supplementing it with keywords such as 'Modi on Ambedkar' – taking a clue from the video which had a text saying PM Modi's statement on Babasaheb.
This led us to a video uploaded on the official channel of DD News. The video was uploaded on 21 March 2016 with the caption, "PM Narendra Modi delivers Dr. Ambedkar Memorial Lecture." It is a six-year-old video, which is now being widely circulated as a recent one.
We found that the trimmed clip starts at 32:52 and ends at 36:35 of the original speech uploaded on YouTube. It stops exactly at the point where Modi starts talking about Ambedkar.
In the original video, he can be heard saying, "Can you imagine a great man who has faced so many crimes, whose childhood was spent by facing injustice, ignorance, and harassment, a person who has seen his mother getting insulted – don't you think when a person like that gets an opportunity to take revenge, would he not do so? ... But such was the greatness of Babasaheb Ambedkar that even when he had the power of taking any decision, you can never find any sign of bitterness or revenge in his words while drafting the Constitution."
The viral post is only 46 seconds long, while the original duration of the video uploaded on YouTube is 48 minutes. This clearly shows that the PM was referring to Ambedkar while talking about casteism and not spreading the same, as claimed in the post.
Evidently, a trimmed clip of PM Modi's speech is being shared with the claim that he is spreading the idea of taking revenge and spreading casteism.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)