A video posted by the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Delhi Instagram handle claiming to show former Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) head Arvind Kejriwal saying in an interview that he understands a little bit of politics and that cleaning the Yamuna river will not win him votes, is cropped and misleading.
Delhi Assembly elections are expected to be held in February.
The video features Kejriwal's conversation with YouTuber Prakhar Gupta, where he responds to a question about cleaning the Yamuna river. Kejriwal says in the video, "Prakhar, now I have started understanding a little bit of politics. Yamuna (issue) will not bring votes."
In the original interview, Kejriwal promised to clean the Yamuna River, stating he would do so even if it does not earn him votes.
The cropped video was posted with a Hindi caption that translates to, "Kejriwal has started to understand politics a little bit and now he has also understood that by cleaning Yamuna ji, the symbol of faith and belief of Hindus, AAP will not get vote. What a cunning man!"
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact Check: Kejriwal On Yamuna River Pollution
BOOM found that Kejriwal's original interview was uploaded on Prakhar Gupta's official YouTube channel, 'Prakhar ke Pravachan,' on December 27, 2024.
We listened to the interview and noticed that the viral segment posted by BJP Delhi's official Instagram page had been cropped from the original interview, specifically from the 43:34-minute to the 44:04-minute timestamp.
The segment where Kejriwal can be heard promising that he would clean the Yamuna even if it doesn't earn him votes has been cropped out
When Gupta mentions that if Kejriwal cleans the Yamuna River, he believes that he will remain undefeated in Delhi; Kejriwal responds by saying, "Prakhar, now I have started understanding a little bit of politics. Yamuna (issue) will not bring votes. But I will still clean the Yamuna. Because, I have not come here to do politics for votes. They were already doing vote politics. Power from money, money from power - they were doing this. When I establish schools, I don't see if I will get votes or not. When I construct hospitals, I don't see if I will get votes or not. I work as I have come to work and I feel happy to work."
The Yamuna river cleaning deadline has been extended twice in the past two years. According to reports, Kejriwal advanced the deadline to 2025 and recently, Lieutenant governor VK Saxena extended it to 2026. Rs 6856.91 crore has been spent in five years between 2017-2021 to clean the rivers Delhi stretch so far.
