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| - Fact Check: This video of Uma Bharti calling PM Modi 'Vinash Purush' is more than a decade old
A search with relevant keywords led us to the same video on YouTube, shared on July 27, 2011.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is more than a decade old. According to media reports, and Bharti herself, the remarks were made at a time when she was not part of the BJP.
As Gujarat prepares for its second and final phase of polling for the assembly elections, a video of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “Vinash Purush” or a “man of destruction” is being widely circulated on social media. In the video likely from a press meeting, Bharti can be heard criticising Modi.
“I have known him since 1973. He is not a vikas purush, he is a vinash purush. His claim of GDP growth and uplifting people from the BPL to the APL category is fake. Gujarat has neither Ram nor roti. It should be freed from the vinash purush. It is the media that has made Modi so big,” Bharti can be heard saying in the video. The archived version of one such post can be seen here.
Many people on social media have shared this video sans context. AFWA found that this video is more than a decade old, and at the time when Bharti made these comments, she was not part of the BJP.
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AFWA PROBE
A search with relevant keywords led us to the same video on YouTube, shared on July 27, 2011.
Per media reports, ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, the same video was shared by Congress leaders to take potshots at Modi, who was then the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. According to the Indian Express, screening the video, then Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi had clarified at the time that Bharti was not in the BJP when she made those remarks.
Bharti was expelled from the BJP in 2005 for indiscipline after a public spat with senior leader LK Advani, who was then the president of the saffron party. Reportedly, she asked for the removal of Advani, saying that he had broken the discipline of the party.
In response, Bharti floated her own political party, the Bharatiya Janshakti Party. However, the party failed to gain public support and Bharti returned to the BJP in June 2011. In 2014, she was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Jhansi constituency and served as the Minister for Water Resources from May 26, 2014, to September 1, 2017.
When Bharti was asked about the veracity of the viral video on journalist Rajat Sharma's show, Aap Ki Adalat, she said that she had indeed said those things when she was part of the Bhartiya Janshakti Party. The episode was shared by India TV on its YouTube channel on July 11, 2015.
According to a 2014 NDTV report as well, Bharti said that she had made the comments after being expelled from the party.
It is hence clear that the video of Bharti which is now viral on social media is more than a decade old. According to media reports, and Bharti herself, the remarks were made at a time when she was not part of the BJP.
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