Old video of BJP spokesperson Nighat Abbas shouting slogans against opposition leaders shared with a misleading narrative - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 15, 2023
A video is being shared on social media claiming that a group of Muslims, led by a burqa-clad woman, raised ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Azadi’ slogans targeting opposition leaders in the country. The video shows the burqa-clad woman shouting ‘Rahul Gandhi se Azadi’, ‘Kejriwal se Azadi’, ‘Mamata Didi se Azadi’ and a few other slogans against the opposition leaders. Sharing the video, this post claims that Muslims in the country have now transformed, got fully aware of the facts and displayed patriotism by shouting slogans against the opposition leaders. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a group of Muslims shouting ‘Azadi’ slogans against the opposition leaders.
Fact: The burqa-clad woman who was seen shouting slogans against the opposition leaders in the video is Nighat Abbas, a spokeswoman for BJP in Delhi. Nighat Abbas made these slogans during the 2019 General Elections campaign in BJP MP Manoj Tiwari’s constituency in Delhi. The video does not show common Muslims shouting slogans against the opposition leaders of the country. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video with similar visuals was found tweeted by Delhi BJP spokeswoman Nighat Abbas on 07 May 2019. Nighat Abbas tweeted the video saying that she along with a few members of the Muslim community had raised slogans demanding freedom from Congress, Kejriwal and other leaders of opposition parties.
When BJP party worker Arun Yadav tweeted the same video in January 2020, Nighat Abbas quote-tweeted Arun Yadav’s tweet stating that the video was made by her during the 2019 General Election Campaign in BJP leader Manoj Tiwari’s constituency in Delhi.
A few videos of Nighat Abbas representing the BJP in news debates and interviews can be seen here, here and here. ‘BJP Delhi’ had also published many tweets mentioning Nighat Abbas as their official spokesperson. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post shows an old video of BJP spokeswoman Nighat Abbas making slogans against the opposition parties during the 2019 General Election campaign.
To sum it up, an old video of BJP spokesperson Nighat Abbas shouting slogans against opposition leaders shared as the visuals of common Muslims expressing their anguish over opposition parties.