{"id":501749,"date":"2022-02-07T13:12:50","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T13:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/?p=111267"},"modified":"2022-02-07T13:12:50","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T13:12:50","slug":"bjp-members-falsely-claim-man-accuses-sp-of-building-masjids-for-muslim-appeasement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/02\/07\/bjp-members-falsely-claim-man-accuses-sp-of-building-masjids-for-muslim-appeasement\/","title":{"rendered":"BJP members falsely claim man accuses SP of building \u201cmasjids\u201d for Muslim appeasement"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 14-second clip has been shared along with the claim that an elderly man confronted Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and said, “You only made masjids, we won’t give votes.” (\u0924\u0941\u092e\u0928\u0947 \u0915\u0947\u0935\u0932 \u092e\u0938\u094d\u091c\u093f\u0926 \u092c\u0928\u0935\u093e\u0908, \u0939\u092e \u0935\u094b\u091f \u0928\u0939\u0940\u0902 \u0926\u0947\u0902\u0917\u0947.)<\/p>\n

BJP member Priti Gandhi<\/a>,\u00a0BJP Himachal in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna<\/a>, BJP spokesperson Sarika A Jain<\/a>, BJP UP’s social media co-convenor Saurabh<\/a> tweeted this video.<\/p>\n

\n

“\u0924\u0941\u092e\u0928\u0947 \u0915\u0947\u0935\u0932 \u092e\u0938\u094d\u091c\u093f\u0926 \u092c\u0928\u0935\u093e\u0908, \u0939\u092e \u0935\u094b\u091f \u0928\u0939\u0940\u0902 \u0926\u0947\u0902\u0917\u0947!!”<\/p>\n

Posting without comments. Draw your own inference.#UPElections2022<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Dar45lWaNl<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Priti Gandhi – \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0940\u0924\u093f \u0917\u093e\u0902\u0927\u0940 (@MrsGandhi) February 3, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201c\u0924\u0941\u092e\u0928\u0947 \u0915\u0947\u0935\u0932 \u092e\u0938\u094d\u091c\u093f\u0926 \u092c\u0928\u0935\u093e\u0908 \u201c \u0924\u093e\u090a \u0928\u0947 \u0905\u0916\u093f\u0932\u0947\u0936 \u0915\u0947 \u0938\u093e\u092e\u0928\u0947 \u0915\u0939\u093e \u0939\u092e \u0935\u094b\u091f \u0928\u0939\u0940\u0902 \u0926\u0947\u0902\u0917\u0947!! #\u091c\u092f_\u0936\u094d\u0930\u0940\u0930\u093e\u092e<\/a> \ud83d\udea9\ud83d\udea9 pic.twitter.com\/y2ZYFOeI7b<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Avinash Rai Khanna (@ImAvinashKhanna) February 3, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Several Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> users posted this video. It was also shared on high-network pro-BJP pages such as \u091f\u0940\u092e \u0915\u093f\u0936\u0928\u093e\u0930\u093e\u092e \u092c\u093f\u0936\u0928\u094b\u0908<\/a> [over 20K followers]; \u092d\u093e\u091c\u092a\u093e \u0915\u093e \u092a\u0930\u093f\u0935\u093e\u0930 \u092e\u0947\u0930\u093e \u092a\u0930\u093f\u0935\u093e\u0930{\u092f\u0942\u092a\u0940 \u092e\u093f\u0936\u0928 2022-\u092d\u093e\u091c\u092a\u093e \u0938\u092e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0915\u094b\u0902 \u0915\u093e \u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0917\u0924 \u0939\u0948}<\/a> [1.4 lakh followers] and \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0927\u093e\u0928\u092e\u0902\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 – \u0928\u0930\u0947\u0902\u0926\u094d\u0930 \u092e\u094b\u0926\u0940 \u091c\u0940<\/a> \u2705 [over 1.4 lakh followers].<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2019 video shared with a false narrative<\/h4>\n

Upon hearing the viral video carefully, we noticed that the dialect is difficult to understand. A UP-based reporter told Alt News that the elderly man was claiming that Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) are swapped after votes are cast. In an impassioned address to Akhilesh Yadav, he alleges that people vote for the SP but the votes are not counted since the machines are swapped. The word “machine” is misrepresented as “masjid” in viral claims.<\/p>\n

Alt News also spoke with SP national spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi. He said that the elderly man is not saying, “Tumne keval masjid banvayi, hum vote nahi denge<\/em>” (You only made mosques, we will give not votes). Gandhi informed, “The old man has said machines, not masjids. He is of the opinion that the SP doesn’t win since EVMs are swapped.”<\/p>\n

Using this as a clue, Alt News performed a keyword search (\u0905\u0916\u093f\u0932\u0947\u0936 \u092f\u093e\u0926\u0935 \u092c\u0941\u091c\u0941\u0930\u094d\u0917 evm \u092e\u0936\u0940\u0928<\/a>) on Facebook and found two instances of a longer version of the video shared on the platform in 2019 [1<\/a>, 2<\/a>]. One of them was posted by SP spokesperson Roli Tiwari Mishra<\/a>. In this video, we can hear quite clearly that the elderly man said “machines” and not “masjids”. He claimed that the BJP won elections because EVMs were swapped after people cast votes for the SP.<\/p>\n

The UP-based reporter informed Alt News that the man has used unparliamentary language towards the end of the longer video. In fact, we can also hear Yadav discouraging him from using such language. Alt News has thus, not embedded the longer video but Mishra’s post (screenshot below) has been hyperlinked above.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The video below is a clipped version of Mishra’s post which only includes the viral segment.<\/p>\n