In the context of BJP dropping Nitin Gadkari from its parliamentary Board, a short video clip of Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s saying he doesn’t care if he loses his ministerial position is being widely shared on social media platforms. The post claims that these he’s making these remarks about himself. Let’s fact- check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Union minister Nitin Gadkari saying he doesn’t care even if he loses his ministerial position after BJP dropped him from its parliamentary Board.
Fact: In the original full-length video, Gadkari was narrating incidents that happened during his tenure (1995-99) as PWD minister in Maharashtra Government. He just reiterated his conversation with the then CM Manohar Joshi. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
The words of Nitin Gadkari in the viral video are the following, “if possible, stand with me, otherwise don’t. It doesn’t make any difference. I am not worried about losing my position. If I lose my ministerial position, then I lose it. I’m not a professional politician. I’m a very ordinary person who grew up eating on the footpath, watching movies in third class, watching dramas from backstage. I’m happy with that kind of life. When Z+ security came, after sending them off at nights, I once again step out on foot path”
We searched with the relevant keywords and found a tweet shared by the Office of Nitin Gadkari on 25 August 2022. The tweet clarified that the viral video is manipulated by comparing it with the original video. The description at the bottom of the video says, “Nitin Gadkari ji is narrating an old story in the video which is being manipulated and shown in a wrong way”.
Taking cue from this, we searched for the full video and found a 27-minute long video on the Nitin Gadkari’s official YouTube channel uploaded on 23 August 2022. The video is live streamed when Nitin Gadkari launched a book ‘Naukarsyahi ke Rang’ written by retired IFS officer Dr. Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay. In this speech, Gadkari shared a few anecdotes while he was working as PWD Minister (1995-1999) in Government of Maharashtra.
We watched the video and identified the time timestamps containing the viral clip. At 7:24 minutes, Gadkari says, “While I was a minister in Government of Maharashtra in 1996, an incident took place in which 2500 children died of malnutrition in Melghat, Amravati district. That was a big news during that time. Our CM Manohar Joshi says, Nitin, what is this situation, Melghat has 450 villages and doesn’t even have a single road in these villages. I was the PWD minister and during meetings, the forest and chief conservation officer used to come and around four to five times I heard the CM saying, “don’t you feel anything, 2500 children died of malnutrition, there is no electrical line, children can’t go to school, you stop all the work under forest conservation, don’t you feel anything,” and the officer told him (Joshi), “I’m sorry and that I can’t do anything“”
And at 9:09 minutes, Gadkari says, “I had said, Sir, You can’t handle this. I’m very good at handling this, leave it to me, I don’t have to worry about any consequences, and I will do this work. If possible, stand with me, otherwise don’t. I’m not worried about losing my position. If I lose my ministerial position, then I lose it.”
To sum it up, a short video clip taken from the the video of Nitin Gadkari narrating an old anecdote is shared out of context after BJP dropped him from its parliamentary Board.
