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| - Fact Check: No, Pankaj Tripathi DID NOT campaign against the BJP in an ad. This video is edited
In November 2023, the National Payments Corporation of India appointed Pankaj Tripathi as its "UPI Safety Ambassador". The original video is a part of this campaign and does not mention the BJP at all.
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India Today Fact Check
The viral video is edited. In the original video, part of a UPI safety awareness campaign, Pankaj Tripathi only spoke about UPI fraud. He did not mention the BJP at all.
As political parties gear up for Assembly elections in Delhi scheduled for February 2025, the Aam Aadmi Party shared a video on December 5 featuring actor Pankaj Tripathi campaigning against the Bhartiya Janata Party. While this post has since been deleted, its archive can be seen here.
Starring as a peanut seller in the video, Tripathi says, “I sell peanuts, not my brain. Look at this message BJP has sent. It says, ‘Vote for us, we will bring development.’ Do you think I don’t know anything? Here I will vote for them, and government money will disappear there. I am a peanut seller, not a fool. Remember, if the BJP tempts you, say, ‘I am not a fool.’”
The official social media accounts of AAP Rajasthan and AAP Seelampur, along with several others, also shared this video.
India Today Fact Check found that the video was edited. The original video is a public service announcement and Pankaj Tripathi was talking about UPI frauds — not the BJP.
Our Probe
Reverse-searching keyframes from the viral video led us to a Facebook post dated September 23. The video in this post appeared to be the same. But it had a few noticeable differences. In this version, Tripathi was talking about UPI fraud. He did not mention the BJP in the video.
Also, in this video, when Tripathi shows his phone screen, the photo on the device reads “Winner. Congrats! You have won a lottery of Rs 25,00,000! To claim your prize, click here,” followed by a hyperlink. In the viral clip, this was replaced with the BJP’s symbol and the text: “Vote for BJP”. A comparison between the two can be seen here.
In November 2023, the National Payments Corporation of India or the NPCI announced its collaboration with actor Pankaj Tripathi, appointing him as its “UPI Safety Ambassador”. In September this year, the Indian instant payment system Unified Payments Interface or UPI rolled out an ad campaign called “Main Moorkh Nahi Hoon”, featuring Tripathi as a peanut seller who received a fraudulent lottery message. It was made to raise awareness about scams related to digital payment services.
An NPCI press release dated November 6 noted the public sector company launched a UPI Safety Awareness Campaign. The campaign conceptualised by Ogilvy would feature Tripathi in a series of six ad films, highlighting common tactics used by scammers.
As of now, three such ads featuring Pankaj Tripathi as a peanut seller, a betel seller, and a business executive, have been released. India Today Fact Check also reached out to Pankaj Tripathi’s PR team for a comment regarding the viral video. The story will be updated when we receive a response.
It is thus, clear that the video was edited to show Pankaj Tripathi campaigning against the BJP.
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