Authors
In view of the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah flagged off the Bharatiya Janata Party’s fourth Parivartan Rath Yatra in the state last week—launched by BJP president JP Nadda.
Terming Bengal’s CM Mamata Banerjee a “failed administrator” Shah said, “This ‘Parivartan Yatra’ is not for changing a CM, MLA or a minister. It is for ending infiltration, it’s for the transformation of Bengal. You vote for the BJP to power in Bengal. Leave alone illegal immigrants, not even a bird from across the border will be allowed to enter the state.”
Amid this, social media users claimed that Shah fell off the stage at a Kolkata rally when he saw farmers run away.
Shared with a video, one such claim when translated from Punjabi to English reads, “At the Calcutta rally, Amit Shah saw the farmers running and fell from the stage.” Posted on 12 February ‘21, this claim has received nearly 31K shares.
Another user shared two images with the caption (translated from Hindi to English), “Amit Shah fell from the running platform looking at the farmers in Kolkata rally. News from sources.”
A Facebook account named IFB News also shared this claim with the video on 13 February.
Fact Check/ Verification
Using a combination of reverse image search of the video’s keyframes and relevant keywords we found that the video was earlier published by Times Of India (TOI) in 2018. Titled, “BJP president Amit Shah falls off stage during a rally in Madhya Pradesh,” the video was uploaded on TOI’s official Youtube channel on 25 November, 2018.
“BJP president Amit Shah slipped from a chariot during an election rally in Madhya Pradesh on November 24. The video of Amit Shah falling from the chariot has gone viral on social media. The incident took place during an election rally in Ashok Nagar where Amit Shah was campaigning for his party for the upcoming assembly elections,” reads the TOI video’s description.
The 20-second clip in the claim (Left) resembles the keyframes in this TOI video (Right).
NDTV and Zee News also reported on Shah’s fall during his Madhya Pradesh roadshow in November 2018.
Additionally, Shah’s video clip from the claim was shared by Twitter and Facebook users in 2018. In February 2020, this video was falsely linked to CAA protests in Shaheen Bagh as well.
You can read this claim debunk in our Hindi and Punjabi fact-check as well.
Conclusion
Our research makes it clear that claims shared with a video of Amit Shah falling while getting off a stage is from his roadshow in Madhya Pradesh, 2018. The video has been revived and linked with a misleading claim in the current context of Shah holding rallies ahead of the Legislative assembly in West Bengal.
Result: Misplaced Context
Our Sources
Times Of India: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to9tzj1rfv4
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jigneshmevani80/status/1066337760489857026
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2267408190210497
If you would like us to fact check a claim, give feedback or lodge a complaint, WhatsApp us at 9999499044 or email us at checkthis@newschecker.in. You can also visit the Contact Us page and fill the form.
