An alleged video clip from the TV show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) has gone viral on social media in which a question about the loan waiver scheme of the Madhya Pradesh government was asked as the seventh question for 40,000 rupees. The question in Hindi translates to “What is the total number of farmers that benefited from the loan waiver provided by the government of Kamal Nath that was formed in Madhya Pradesh in 2018.” The contestant gave a correct answer, which is 27 Lakhs, after which the host of KBC, Amitabh Bachchan, can be seen saying that the Kamal Nath’s government in MP waived loans of 27 lakh farmers when they were in power for 15 months but Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s government stopped this scheme after they came to power.
Claim: A question about the Madhya Pradesh loan waiver scheme was posed on KBC.
Fact: The original episode’s question was unrelated to the loan waiver scheme. The viral video is an edited one. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To investigate the authenticity of the viral claim, we conducted an internet search using relevant keywords, including the contestant’s name mentioned in the video, Rahul Kumar. This led us to the full episode on the official YouTube channel of Sony Entertainment Television (SET India). Contrary to what is shown in the viral clip, the original episode’s seventh question was about the geography of Karnataka and Gujarat.
It became evident that the viral video had been manipulated. The original episode was tampered with by overlaying a dubbed audio of Amitabh Bachchan asking a question about loan waivers by different governments (Congress’s Kamal Nath and BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan). The question graphic was also altered to align with the fabricated narrative.
Sony Entertainment Television addressed the issue in a statement on 17 November 2023 on Facebook, confirming that the videos circulating on social media are misleading. The statement clarified that these videos “overlay fabricated voiceovers of the host and contestants, presenting a distorted version of the original content.”
To sum up, the viral claim about a question regarding the Madhya Pradesh loan waiver scheme on Kaun Banega Crorepati is false. The original episode’s content was manipulated.
