| schema:text
| - Fact Check: This Gadkari video is from 2019 - three years before his ouster from BJP parliamentary board
An old video of Nitin Gadkari is now being shared widely that supposedly shows the reason why Gadkari was removed form BJP's parliamentary board. However, AFWA found that this video is from January 2019.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
This video is from 2019. While news reports say Gadkari’s colourful remarks displeased the RSS leadership and played a role in his ouster, to suggest this comment is at the heart of the controversy is a matter of speculation.
After the removal of union minister Nitin Gadkari from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s parliamentary board, social media is flooded with claims on the possible reasons behind the former BJP president’s ouster.
A video is now being shared widely that supposedly shows the reason why Gadkari was removed. In it, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways said, "Leaders who make promises are popular. And leaders who don’t fulfil those promises are flogged by the populace." Those sharing the video implied this was a potshot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah.
AFWA found that this video is from January 2019 — more than three years Gadkari’s removal from the party’s parliamentary board.
AFWA Probe
Upon reverse-searching frames from the clip, we found the a video on the YouTube channel of the news agency ANI.
This video from January 27, 2019, was from an event in Mumbai, Maharashtra. While this video contained the viral clip, it further saw Gadkari say, “I don’t just make promises. No reporter can question that whatever I promise, I fulfil transparently.”
Gandkari also added that the people in Mumbai trusted him. He said that he was initially laughed at when he made great promises. Eventually, however, he fulfilled all of them — some even before their deadlines.
We then searched online and found a Hindustan Times report that stated this from when actor Isha Koppikar joined the BJP in Gadkari’s presence.
The attire worn by Gadkari in the photograph published with this report is the same as the one in the viral video and the ANI one. This means that this video is indeed of January 2019.
We then looked for media reports on Gadkari’s removal from the BJP’s parliamentary board. Initial reports from August 17, the day the BJP dropped Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from its parliamentary board, did not state any reasons.
However, a new Times of India report said that the surprise decision was taken with the consent of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leadership, which was supposedly annoyed with Gadkari’s propensity to make "out of turn" remarks.
The report quoted anonymous senior BJP sources, who said that the RSS leadership had “cautioned” Gadkari against this, and was disappointed by his failure to heed. “Somewhere he became a prisoner of the ‘I-could-not-care-any less’ persona that he acquired because of his controversial remarks. He cultivated it as we feel, he started enjoying projecting himself as an autonomous entity on whom the regular rules did not apply,” one source told TOI.
Curiously enough, the TOI report cited Gadkari’s comments in the viral clip as an example of such remarks. The report, however, stated no official comments from either the BJP or Gadkari’s office.
So, while Gadkari's comments are likely part of the reason, to assert that this remark from 2019 resulted in Gadkari’s ouster from the BJP’s parliamentary board is shaky at best.
(With inputs from Yash Mittal)
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)