2 weeks ago
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Amit Malviya, Bharatiya Janata Party's IT cell head on Monday falsely claimed a video of party candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav alias Nirahua making remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath being childless, was a deepfake.
In the video, Yadav the BJP candidate from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, claimed Modi and Adityanath have preferred to be childless to stop unemployment. It was posted by Indian Youth Congress President Srinivas BV on X and the same was rubbished as a deepfake by Malviya and Yadav himself.
BOOM found that the video is real and not a deepfake.
We also found that while the video is real, the sequence in the video posted by Srinivas BV on X had been changed. In the viral video Nirahua's comments on Modi and Adityanath being childless appear at the beginning of the viral video, while in the longer version, he talks about the correlation between unemployment and population and then mentions that the top BJP leaders remaining childless has stopped unemployment.
We also reached out to the channel which aired Yadav's interview where he made the comments. Santosh Kushwaha, reporter, YouTube news channel Soul UP Hindi, confirmed to BOOM that he interviewed Yadav, during his visit to the Azamgarh constituency on April 13, 2024. Nirahua is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Azamgarh with a BJP ticket.
Malviya reposted the video by Srinivas BV with the caption, "This video is fake. The Congress, like in MP, is using deepfakes to mislead people, create unrest and sow divisions in the society..." He added that Yadav would file an FIR against Srinivas BV. "Complaint also being filed with @ECISVEEP. We have all screenshots (with time stamp) and video recordings for a legal case."
View an archive here.
In the viral video, Yadav can be heard saying in Hindi, "Modi has stopped. Does Modi even have one child? Please tell me. Does Yogi even have one child? So (this means) Yogi and Modi have stopped unemployment. That we won't increase unemployment. So then who is increasing the unemployment? Those who are having kids after kids and even when the government is asking them to stop, they refuse to." He then goes on to correlate population growth with unemployment.
The video was also reposted by Nirahua, supporting Malviya's false claim. Nirahua claimed that his voice in the video had been cloned using artificial intelligence.
Click here to view an archive of the post.
Fact Check
VIDEO IS REAL, NOT DEEPFAKE.
BOOM ran a related keyword search on YouTube and found the longer version of the video uploaded on a local Hindi channel Soul Up Hindi.
The interview with Yadav was uploaded on April 13, 2024 with the title, "MP Nirahua gets angry after being questioned on unemployment. He said don't give birth to children, like Yogi and Modi."
(Original text in Hindi: बेरोजगारी के सवाल पर भड़के सांसद निरहुआ कहा कहा योगी मोदी जी की तरह मत करो पैदा बच्चे #vairal)
In the longer version, the reporter asks Yadav, "Will employment be created for the youth, especially government jobs?"
Yadav counters the reporter by asking the number of government jobs and adding that 80 lakh jobs are not enough to provide employment. He then talks about the government's schemes and says that Modi as PM is increasing employment opportunities via various schemes like Swanidhi Yojana, Vishwakarma Yojana, Krishi Yojana etc. Yadav then goes on to give a detailed explanation about the apparent relation between population and unemployment, as heard in the viral video.
At the counter 10.48 Yadav can be heard saying, "Those who are saying that unemployment is increasing in this country, (he then gestures with his hands to the limit of employment opportunities) tell them that employment can be provided to only a certain number (of people). Now after that if you are increasing the population above this limit, that is contributing to the unemployment. An attempt to stop this is being made by Modi and the government."
He then adds, "When they are trying to introduce a law that asks you to have less children, have only two children... you are saying that you yourself are unemployed and then you are going and giving birth to eight more unemployed. Why? You are unable to feed yourself... you are saying that you are unemployed. So if you are unemployed (then) are you even thinking for a second why you are giving birth to more unemployed (people)."
At the counter 11.28 Yadav uses Modi as an example and says, "Modi has stopped. Does Modi even have one child? Please tell me. Does Yogi even have one child? So (this means) Yogi and Modi have stopped unemployment. That we won't increase unemployment. So then who is increasing the unemployment? Those who are having kids after kids and even when the government is asking them to stop, they refuse to."
BOOM found that the video is real but the sequence of Yadav's quotes have been changed in the video posted by Srinivas BV. In this video, Nirahua's comments about Modi and Yogi being childless comes before his explanation about unemployment and rising population. Unlike in the original video where Nirahua's comments on Modi and Yogi are in fact the concluding remarks.
Additionally, we ran the longer 2.58 second clip through itisaar, a deepfake analysis tool created by IIT Jodhpur and DigitID, which concluded that the video was real and not a deepfake.
THE INTERVIEW TOOK PLACE AT SATHIAON, AZAMGARH: REPORTER
BOOM identified the channel and traced the reporter Santosh Kushwaha, who is seen in the video questioning Yadav. Kushwaha confirmed that the video is real and not a deepfake in any manner.
Kushwaha further sent us the raw video file of the interview and explained, "The interview took place on April 13 at Azamgarh's Sathiaon town on the Purvanchal Expressway."
BOOM has reached out to Nirahua's office for a comment on the viral video. The article will be updated if we hear back.
