Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell chief Amit Malviya tweeted a cropped video falsely claiming that Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge was waiting for Sonia Gandhi's approval to sit down at an election rally in Karnataka.
In the 18 seconds video, Kharge is seen standing for a while after greeting Sonia Gandhi as she sits in a seat after delivering her speech.
BOOM found that the video is cropped and misleading as a longer version of it shows Kharge standing as he had to walk to the podium to deliver his speech.
Sonia Gandhi addressed an election rally in Hubbali, Karnataka on May 6, 2023, along with other Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Kharge. The assembly election in Karnataka is scheduled to be held on May 10, 2023, in a single phase followed by the counting of votes on May 13.
Malviya shared the video with the caption, "Reminds me of the famous dialogue from Zanjeer…जब तक बैठने को नहीं कहा जाए, शराफ़त से खड़े रहो… (Stand politely unless asked to sit.) A vote for Congress means letting Sonia and Rahul Gandhi run Karnataka by proxy! Don’t let that happen, Karnataka. You are too self respecting for that…Vote wisely on 10th."
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The same cropped video was also tweeted by Kanchan Gupta, a senior adviser at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting with the caption, "To sit or not to sit. A forlorn Mr @kharge wringing his hands, wondering whether Sonia Gandhi forgot to tell him he can sit or snubbed him by not telling him he could sit."
Click here to view, and here for an archive
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video tweeted by BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya is cropped and misleading as Mallikarjun Kharge is seen going to the podium to speak after Sonia Gandhi had addressed the crowd and was not waiting for her instruction to sit as claimed.
The part where Kharge starts walking towards the podium after greeting Sonia Gandhi has been edited out to make the false claim that he was standing waiting for her instruction to be seated.
This can be seen at the 22.50 minutes timestamp from the live broadcast of the rally on YouTube by the Congress Party's official channel.
After Sonia Gandhi finishes her speech, she goes and sits down at her seat and is greeted by Kharge which is seen in the viral video. Soon after that, Kharge remains standing as he then starts walking towards the podium to address the rally from the 23.00 minutes timestamp.
Kharge remained standing as he was scheduled to speak next.
