A video showing former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani removing a red beacon from a vehicle has gone viral with a claim that it shows him removing the light from his own car following his resignation as the CM.
Rupani resigned as the CM on Saturday, 11 September, following which Bhupendra Patel took charge.
However, we found that the video, which dates back to 2017, when the central government had issued a ban on central government employees and ministers from using a red beacon on their cars. The move was supposed to end the VVIP culture and bring down the number of cars with red beacons.
CLAIM
The users who shared the video shared a caption that said, "विजय रुपानी मुख्यमंत्री की कुर्सी छोड़ने के बाद खुद लाल बत्ती हटते हुए ! अब आप खुद समझ सकते हैं सिस्टम किस तरह हाईजैक हो चूका है और रुपानी मुख्यमंत्री न होकर एक रबर स्टाम्प थे".
[Translation: Vijay Rupani removing the red beacon from his car himself after leaving the chief minister's chair! Now you yourself can understand how the system has been hijacked and Rupani was a rubber stamp and not the chief minister.]
The same claim was used by other users who shared the viral video.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Photo: Facebook/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
The video of Rupani seemed to be a broadcast from ABP Asmita and it showed Rupani removing a red beacon.
We conducted a keyword search for the "Vijay Rupani removing a red beacon" and "ABP Asmita" and found a link to the video on their official YouTube channel.
The video was published on 20 April 2017 and was titled, "CM Vijay Rupani Removes Red Beacon From his Car".
We looked for news reports and found that it was following the central government's order banning all central government officials and some ministers from using the red beacon.
We found that Rupani tweeted the viral clip from his Twitter handle as well.
In the tweet that was posted on 20 April 2017, the then CM of Gujarat had said, "Respecting Modi Govt's historic decision of ending Lal Batti culture, removed Red Beacon from my car."
Rupani became the fourth BJP chief minister to resign in recent months when he stepped down from the CM's post on 11 September. Bhupendra Patel, a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from the Ghatlodiya constituency, became the new chief minister of the state.
Evidently, an old video of the former Gujarat CM was shared with a false claim that shows him removing the red beacon from his car following his resignation.
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