A post with a video is being widely shared on social media, in which Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar is seen saying, “after this, there is no question of going back, we live or die, we are not going to join you ….”. The video is being shared in the context of JD(U) leaving the NDA and allying with the RJD. The post claims that Nitish Kumar’s comments in the video were targetted at the RJD and that he betrayed his own words. Let us fact-check these claims via this article.
Claim: Nitish Kumar said, ‘Under any circumstances, there is no question of going back with RJD.’
Fact: This is an old video from 2014. During Bihar’s assembly session, Nitish Kumar made these comments about BJP on 18 February 2014 . He said that his party would never join BJP again. A clipped version of his speech is being shared without the entire context to claim that he said that he would never join RJD. Hence the claim made in the post is Misleading.
A reverse image search in Yandex led us to a 54 sec. Youtube video titled ‘Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s historic speech about BJP in Bihar Assembly.’ This video in the viral post is a slightly longer version and uploaded on 12th December 2021.
With this information, we searched the internet with relevant keywords and were led to a video and a few media reports from 2014 about this speech. The Youtube video posted by India Today has the entire speech of Nitish Kumar that was made in the assembly. He can be seen saying the lines’ after this; there is no question of going back, we live or meet in the soil, we are not going to join you …’
A report by Jagran says’ Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on 18 February 2014 rejected the talk of rejoining the BJP in the assembly and said that he will die but will not compromise with the BJP. It is impossible; this chapter is now closed.
Dainik Bhaskar and One India have also reported about this speech, which can be read here and here.
A live webcast of the Assembly session in which Nitish Kumar made these comments can be watched here; he makes these comments from 1 Hr. 20 Min 10 Sec. mark.
Hence, we can conclude that a shortened version of Nitish Kumar’s speech from 18 February 2014 about not joining the BJP is being used to claim that he made the comments about not joining RJD.
To summarise, an old video of Nitish Kumar’s speech in the Bihar assembly from 2014 is used to share a false narrative amidst JD(U) quitting the NDA.
