A video clip featuring BJP senior leader and Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari stating, “Today the villages, poor, labourers, and farmers are unhappy. There are no good roads, no pure water to drink, no good hospitals, no good schools in the villages,” is widely circulating across social media platforms. The claim accompanying the video suggests that Nitin Gadkari has admitted that, under the rule of the present BJP government in which he is a part, the poor, labourers, and farmers in the villages are unhappy due to the absence of good roads, clean drinking water, quality hospitals, and schools. In this article, let’s fact-check the assertions made in the post.
Claim: Nitin Gadkari has admitted that, under the rule of the BJP government, the poor, labourers, and farmers in the villages are unhappy.
Fact: The clip shows Nitin Gadkari’s interview to a media outlet named ‘The Lallantop”, which was published on 29 February 2024. This interview video of Gadkari has been edited between the timestamps 18:20 and 18:40 and shared with a false narrative, distorting the context of his speech. Originally, Gadkari made statements while addressing the conditions of rural, agricultural, and tribal economies since India’s independence. Therefore, it can be inferred that an incomplete video of Gadkari’s interview has been taken out of context, falsely suggesting that he admitted, under the rule of the BJP government, the poor, labourers, and farmers in the villages are unhappy. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
This video was also shared by the official Twitter accounts of the Congress party and its leaders (here & here). Upon closer inspection of the viral video, we noticed the logo of the Hindi news outlet The Lallantop in the top right corner. Subsequently, we explored The Lallantop’s YouTube channel and found the full-length interview with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, uploaded on 29 February 2024.
While reviewing the interview, we identified that the viral video had been clipped between the timestamps 18:20 and 18:40. In this segment, Gadkari addresses a question about the recent protests by farmers. During his response, the Union Minister emphasizes empowering farmers and the agrarian sector through infrastructural development, providing statistics on the contributions of the agricultural, manufacturing, and service sectors to India’s economy. He also touches upon the historical aspect of rural-urban migration since Mahatma Gandhi’s time. In discussing this, he highlights the lack of infrastructure in rural India as a source of discontent among the rural population. Consequently, the viral video omitted the context of his comments.
Originally, Nitin Gadkari made these statements while discussing farmers and agricultural issues in response to an interviewer’s question. When addressing the topic of farmers and agriculture, Gadkari remarked “When Gandhiji was there, population up to 90% lived in the villages and this thirty percent migration happen gradually. Today, villagers, poor people, labourers, and farmers are sad. The reason is that water, land, forests, and wildlife – rural, agricultural, and tribal – these economies do not have good roads, potable water, good hospitals, good schools. Farmers don’t get good prices for their crops, and the sustainable development that was supposed to happen has happened, it is not that it has not happened. It has happened but not as much as it has happened in other sectors. After our government came, we are also doing a lot of work. After our government came to power, we have worked a lot for this. We have identified 550 aspirant blocks, and 120 aspirational districts were identified by Modiji, to work on.” (Translation from Hindi to English). Furthermore, the minister discussed their plans to facilitate progress in these sectors by helping them establish additional sources of livelihood.
After this clipped video went viral and was shared by several Congress party Twitter handles, on 01 March 2024, Gadkari’s office shared both the clipped and longer versions of the video, calling out the Congress for their post. In the context of the interview, it is evident that the Union Minister was addressing the conditions of rural, agricultural, and tribal economies since India’s independence. Therefore, it can be inferred that an incomplete video of Gadkari’s interview has been taken out of context, falsely suggesting that he admitted, under the rule of the BJP government in which he is a part, the poor, labourers, and farmers in the villages are unhappy. The Press Information Bureau (PIB Fact Check) of the Government of India has also refuted the authenticity of the viral video.
We also came across several media reports (here, here, and here) indicating that Gadkari has issued a legal notice to Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh regarding the video. Reportedly, Gadkari has requested the party to promptly remove all clipped videos and issue an apology within three days. He also said that failure to comply would prompt him to pursue legal action.
To sum up, a clipped video of Nitin Gadkari’s interview is being shared out of context, falsely claiming that Gadkari admitted that Indian villages are facing issues under the BJP government.
