BJP IT Cell Head Edits Yogendra Yadav Speech, Claims It’s Communal

Amit Malviya had claimed that Yadav had bragged about “his Muslim identity” while delivering a speech in Mewat.

Amit Malviya had claimed that Yogendra Yadav had bragged about “his Muslim identity” while delivering a speech in a Muslim-dominated constituency.

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CLAIM

Bharatiya Janata Party’s head of IT operations Amit Malviya tweeted a video purportedly of an old speech by politician and psephologist Yogendra Yadav on Friday, 19 April, claiming that Yadav had indulged in communal politics.

Malviya, in his tweet, said that Yadav had bragged about “his Muslim identity” while delivering a speech in a Muslim-dominated constituency in Haryana.

The caption shared with the video read: “I usually don’t carry TV debates to social media but making an exception to expose Yogendra Yadav’s Janus face. Here is a video where he can be seen bragging his Muslim identity to a largely Muslim audience in Muslim dominated Mewat. If this isn’t cynical politics, then what is?”

The video has clearly been produced, with overlaid text graphics and background music. It starts with the text: “At a Mahapanchayat in Muslim dominated Mewat in Haryana, Yogendra Yadav makes it a point to inform the gathering about his ‘Muslim identity’ and tells them that his name is Salim.”

After showing around a minute of Yadav’s public address, the video concludes with the text: “When are you withdrawing from public life?”

BACKGROUND

This comes after a recent TV news debate on India Today, in which Yadav had told Malviya that his grandfather was killed by a Muslim mob. Malviya had accused Yadav of using this as a communal card during his electoral campaigning.

Yadav had openly challenged Malviya to produce “one clipping” as evidence to support his claim.

THE TRUTH

The video put out by Malviya has been clipped to strip it off its context. The same can be ascertained after a viewing of the entire speech.

Yadav tweeted out a link to the entire video, which revealed that it was from July 2018. Yadav was addressing a crowd in Kolgaon, Haryana in the aftermath of the lynching of Rakhbar Khan in Alwar, Rajasthan.

Along with the video, Yadav wrote in his tweet: “Clinching evidence that Amit Malviya had doctored the few seconds video he has circulated. Just listen to this small fragment from my speech. BJP lie factory cut out my words: ‘Na Hindu banega na Musalman banega"! Also: ‘Nafrat ka jawab mohabbat se dena hai’. Are we surprised?”

After establishing the context behind the clipping, it becomes clear that Yadav was recounting the episode involving the murder of his grandfather and the subsequent actions of his father to stress on the need for peace in times of violence and not as a pitch for his electoral campaign.

The claim was also fact-checked by Boom Live, who reached out to Malviya about his tweet. The BJP leader stood by his claim, saying “This video is in context and as proof that that Yadav went to Muslim dominated areas and started speaking about his Muslim name.”

“It is not my job to put out a video that will suit Yadav,” he added, as per the report.

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(With inputs from Boom Live)