Ahead of the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections, a Hindustan Times report and an India TV bulletin published in 2017 on a state BJP’s candidate N Sreeprakash promising “quality beef” in the then held bypolls, have been revived by many social media users.
CLAIM
On 4 March, Congress leader Salman Nizami shared a Hindustan Times report with the text: “BJP candidate in Kerala promises clean, good quality beef to voters. Hypocrisy thy name is BJP. Bhakt log bajav tali (sic)”
Some Facebook users shared an India TV bulletin with the text: “Kerala BJP MLA commits He will supply Good Beef after winning the Election (sic)”
Many Twitter users amplified the bulletin and the report by sharing it widely.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We found that both the viral bulletin and the article are from 2017. Let’s take a look at them one by one.
1. THE VIRAL BULLETIN
We ran a search on YouTube with the keywords: ‘India TV Kerala BJP beef’ and came across a bulletin uploaded by the channel on 3 April 2017.
The 2017 video carries the same visuals as that of the viral one and the title along with the video reads: ‘Kerala BJP candidate promises of good quality beef if voted to power.’
The bulletin identifies the candidate as N Sreeprakash, BJP’s Malappuram candidate for the then held bypolls.
It is pertinent to note that while one of the anchors in the India TV bulletin mentions that the bypolls were for ‘Vidhan Sabha’ elections, however, they were actually for the Malappuram Lok Sabha Constituency, as mentioned in a Financial Express report.
2. THE VIRAL ARTICLE
The Hindustan Times article that has been revived by many social media users is also from April 2017 as can be seen in the dateline.
“I will ensure quality beef and standard abattoirs in my constituency. My opponents are citing beef ban just to portray my party in bad light,” the article quoted the BJP candidate as saying.
An article published by The Quint in 2017 mentioned that a day after his "quality beef" remark kicked up a storm, Sreeprakash had made it clear that he was against cow slaughter and he stood by the party's national policy on the matter, even as the state leadership said a clarification would be sought from him.
Several news outlets such as NDTV, India Today had reported the incident in 2017.
Evidently, an old claim made by Kerala BJP candidate of promising “quality beef” was revived by many social media users ahead of the 2021 Kerala Assembly polls.
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