Video Of Congress Leader Falsely Shared As Maneka Gandhi Slamming BJP

A video of a Congress leader from Ghaziabad - Dolly Sharma - is viral with a caption falsely claiming that Bharatiya Janata Party MP Maneka Gandhi is calling out her own party - BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah for mismanaging the COVID-19 crisis in India.

The 3.31 minute video has been clipped from a 22 minute video and shows Sharma having an emotional breakdown over the rising death cases of COVID-19 patients and accusing Modi, Shah and BJP of giving importance to election campaigns over curtailing the pandemic. Sharma also accuses the ruling party of being selfish and not focusing on the needs of the people, in the video.

The video is being shared with a caption in Hindi that falsely claims that it is Maneka Gandhi making these allegations. The translated caption aims to show that Gandhi who is a Member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh's Sultanpur is speaking her mind against her own party and reads, "Listen to heart's call of BJP MP respected Smt Maneka Gandhi Ji..."

The video is being widely shared on Facebook and Twitter

FACT CHECK

We found several comments on the viral posts claiming the video is of a Dolly Sharma, a Congress leader from Ghaziabad who was the youngest candidate in the constituency to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

A Facebook search for Sharma showed that she had uploaded the same video on her verified Facebook page on April 20. Sharma posted the video with a caption calling for residents of Ghaziabad to help each other and to cooperate with doctors.

The part from the viral video starts at the counter of 14.24 in her original video.

In the 22 minute video, Sharma, talks about how an unverified list of contacts for assistance is doing the rounds and she has been receiving complaints from residents they are going unanswered. She throws light on the increasing number of cases in Ghaziabad and accuses the District Magistrate of ignoring the pleas of the members of the constituency.

Sharma, contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and lost to Gen (retd) VK Singh. In her Twitter and Facebook bios, she describes herself as a Congress member.