Farmers have been protesting the new agricultural laws for four months now. Another round of talks between them and the Centre is ongoing, with neither side willing to back down. In the backdrop of this, a 10-minute video of Defense Minister Rajnath Singh talking about farmers is causing quite a stir online. At the beginning of the clip, the senior leader says, “And my farmer brothers, never consider yourself weak. I am aware of the constraints you have to live with because I am also a villager, I am a farmer’s son myself …” Users were sharing the visuals as recent. One such post was captioned, “Rajnath Singh came forward in support of farmers and spoke against the farm laws. This came as a huge shock to the government.”
Facebook user Rajesh Deshwal shared the video on February 28, where it amassed more than 5.2 lakh views at the time of writing.
https://www.facebook.com/Rajlokmorcha/
राजनाथ सिंह उतरे थे कृषी बिलो के विरोध मे किसानो के सम्मान मे
केन्द्र सरकार को लगा था तगङा झटकाPosted by राजेश देशवाल वि.क्षैत्र फुलेरा on Sunday, February 28, 2021
Another user named Bhanu Baba posted the clip with the same caption. It garnered over 15,000 views at the time of writing.
जय जवान जय किसान
राजनाथ सिंह उतरे थे कृषी बिलो के विरोध मे किसानो के सम्मान मे
केन्द्र सरकार को लगा था तगङा झटकाPosted by Bhanu Baba on Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Old video
In the video, Rajnath Singh is expressing admiration for the farmer leader and president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Mahendra Tikait, who passed away back in 2011. Apart from this, he also names a few other farmer leaders including Chaudhary Charan Singh and Chaudhary Chhotu Ram. Using this information, we performed a keyword search on YouTube which led us to the original clip containing the full speech. It was uploaded on October 6, 2015, by the Bharatiya Janata Party on its YouTube channel. The title mentions that the BJP leader delivered this speech on the occasion of Mahendra Tikait’s 80th birth anniversary. The clip in its entirety is 18:44 long.
It is worth mentioning that Rajnath Singh’s address has been clipped and edited. The original video was cropped at the 5:48 mark to create the viral footage. Apart from this, the section between the 11:50 and 14:36 mark has been removed. Here, Singh is praising Narendra Modi and the BJP government while saying, “You know the administration which I’m working under and our respected Narendra Modi very well. I am telling you the truth, his heart aches for farmers’ issues and we discuss them often…”
A 10-minute clip of Defense Minister Rajnath Singh expressing sympathy and support for farmers has gone viral. However, the clip is more than five years old. Some users falsely linked it to the movement against the new agricultural laws, circulating it as proof of the senior minister siding with farmers on this issue.
The post Old video falsely viral as Rajnath Singh came in support of farmers amid protests appeared first on Alt News.
