Ahead of the second phase of the legislative elections in India’s eastern state of Jharkand on November 20, an old video showing Babulal Marandi — the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state — criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi resurfaced in social media posts that misleadingly linked it to the polls. The clip was in fact filmed in 2018 when Marandi was not yet a member of the BJP.
“BJP leader in Jharkhand is speaking the truth. He said that if Modi remained prime minister for five more years, India would become Pakistan! There would be riots every day,” read part of the Hindi-language caption shared on Facebook on November 17, 2024.
A 59-second clip was shared in the post, where Marandi is shown saying: “The promise Modi made in 2014 remained unfulfilled. Now they are creating divisions between Hindus and Muslims in the name of temple, mosque, religion and love jihad. People didn’t elect the government for such work.”
The term “love jihad“ was coined by far-right Hindu groups and refers to a supposed campaign by Muslim men to seduce Hindu women and convert them to Islam (archived link).
“The government wants society to fight among themselves. Do you want this country to become like Pakistan? I say if Modi remains the prime minister, in the next five years, India will become like Pakistan. There will be riots every other day,” he goes on to say.
Text on the video says: “Babulal is speaking the truth” and identifies him as the BJP leader in Jharkhand and a former chief minister.
Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on November 17, 2024
The misleading video was shared on Facebook, including by prominent public lawyer Prashant Bhushan (archived link).
The post surfaced days before Jharkhand conducted the second phase of its Legislative Assembly election on November 20, where the BJP is pushing to wrest back control of the state from a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led coalition government (archived link).
Election results announced on November 23 showed the JMM-led alliance won majority of the seats (archived link).
Marandi became Jharkhand’s first chief minister in 2000 as a BJP member. He left the party in 2006 to found the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) party, before rejoining the BJP in 2020 and becoming the party’s leader in the state (archived link).
Some users appear to believe the video was filmed recently.
“Babulal Marandi is a former chief minister and currently the state president of BJP. Whatever he is saying is true,” one user said.
“You have made a significant contribution in making the INDIA alliance lose in Jharkhand,” another wrote, referring to the coalition led by the BJP.
But the clip was shared out of context and was filmed in December 2018 when Marandi was not a member of the BJP.
2018 video
A reverse image search on Google found a longer version of the video published on Facebook by local media outlet Taaza Jharkhand on December 14, 2018 (archived link).
The post’s caption said it shows Marandi responding to the Indian top court’s refusal at the time to launch a probe into allegations that Modi used a multi-billion dollar deal to buy Rafale fighter jets from France to favour one of his key backers (archived link).
“Jharkhand Vikas Morcha president and former chief minister Babulal Marandi said on the question of Rafale deal that no comment can be made on the orders of the Supreme Court,” the caption read. “At the same time, he did not fail to take a dig at the present central government regarding this matter.”
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip seen in the misleading post (left) and the video published by local media outlet Taaza Jharkhand in 2018 (right):
Screenshot comparison of the clip seen in the misleading post (left) and the video published by local media outlet Taaza Jharkhand in 2018
AFP has previously debunked misinformation related to the Jharkhand election here.
