A video showing a Meitei woman speaking to opposition leaders including Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (DMK) Kanimozhi, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and TMC's Sushmita Dev is going viral on the internet.
What does the video show?: It shows a woman talking to the leaders about the violence that the women have endured in Manipur during the ongoing violence between the Kuki and the Meitei communities in the state.
What does the claim state?: Several users on social media are sharing this clip of 2:17 minutes to claim that the Meitei woman is praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for helping the people of Manipur.
It also insinuates that the woman is taking a dig at the opposition alliance.
An archive can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
What's the truth?: The original and longer version of the video shows that the Meitei woman is not praising PM Modi.
She clarified that the central government failed to take effective and timely action in Manipur to stop the violence happening against women.
How did we find out the truth?: We noticed Republic TV's logo on the video and looked for the video on their official YouTube channel.
The video was shared by Republic TV.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
This led us to the longer version of the video shared on 29 July 2023.
The woman labelled as a 'Manipur violence eyewitness' says, “Due to the actions taken by the state government, like the implementation of NRC and illegal immigrants to have defected since they were staying in reserved forest areas. More than 15,400 acres of land in Manipur was utilised for poppy plantations, with this the Kuki militants are strongly against the Meitei. But why? Why the Meitei? What is our fault here? Why not ask the government? Why not stand against the government? But why burn our houses and destroy our future, everything? We are youths. We (the Meitei community) have been staying with emotions in these houses for more than 80,000 years. Churachandpur was taken from the king, Maharaja Churachand, during the reign of 1891 to 1941. Churachandpur got its name from Churachand Maharaj. Now, the majority and dominants in Churachandpur were Meiteis but so far, during our stay here, we have never tried (unclear) this violence against them. But now, all of a sudden, due to the illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Burmese they are uniting together and making us homeless. We have been residing there for more than a thousand and thousand of years during our forefathers and our ancestors. Now, it’s like we don’t belong here.”
The viral video has been clipped from 1:49 timestamp, however, the viral clip has edited out the first word 'no' to claim that the woman started praising the central government.
The unclipped version of the video show the woman saying, "No effective actions were taken by the government, by the central government. Why not take this issue up in the Parliament earlier? But why bring it up only after the viral video? Why? And with the concern of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, why did you bring up that viral video only but prior to that an old woman, an old lady, who was a wife of a freedom fighter from Serou, was burned alive in her home. Why not bring up that issue? If they are totally against crimes against women, why not bring up that? Not just that, on the night of 4 and 5 May, most of thr victims are stuck in Churachandpur. Most of the villagers are stuck there. There are rape victims, Churachandpur Meitei women were being raped. Why didn’t we stand up? Because we are scared for our future because we are women, we want to save our future (unclear). If you want the evidence, carry out medical tests on each and every woman. "
"Have the Meitei ever started burning the houses of the Kukis? Have we ever attacked them? They were the first ones to burn our houses, to ruin our futures. They destroyed everything. We stayed there with hope, (unclear) building our future. Our parents took care of us and sent us to schools hoping that we’ll become officers, we will take care of the family someday. To run a family is not an easy thing. They have been building that up for more than 50 years, and everything was destroyed. If they are still asking for the evidence that the Meitei burned the houses of the Kukis why not use the satellite? They can prove everything. Why not use it? Why is the government still not effective, even after 89 days?," she continues.
Conclusion: Evidently, the viral video is a clipped version of a Meitei woman stating that the central government and PM Modi has taken no effective actions in Manipur for women safety.
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