Social media posts claiming Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra said 'sex' was the source of her energy, are false and misleading.
BOOM found that a careful hearing of the full video shows that Moitra spoke about how 'eggs' were the source of her energy, not sex.
The 12-second viral clip shows a reporter asking Mahua, "What's your source of energy", to which Moitra says "Eggs, Eggs." The reporter laughs at this, to which Moitra says, "It's true."
This clip has been shared with the false claim that Moitra said 'sex' instead of 'eggs'. A caption on X reads, "Dear Bengali Voters, is this the kind of MP you want to represent, your Sonar Bangla? Yes u heard it Right. "Sex" is the source of Mahua Moitra's Energy. New Low"
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
The video is being shared on Facebook with the caption, "Sex is the source of my energy. - Mahua Moitra"
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT CHECK
BOOM spoke to Mahua Moitra who confirmed that the viral claims are false; we also slowed down the video to clearly listen to Mahua's reply and were able to confirm that she said 'eggs' in the video, not sex.
We looked at one of the viral videos closely and found that it carried a watermark of 'News The Truth', news outlet based in West Bengal.
Taking a clue from this, we ran a search for the full interview on News The Truth's YouTube channel and found that it was uploaded on April 13, 2024. The video was titled '"I am Unapologetic": TMC Mahua Moitra in Conversation with Tamal Saha'
The portion of the video from 2:35 to 2:41 matched the viral video. Here, Mahua Moitra can be heard saying 'eggs' when asked what the source of her energy is.
Click here for an archive.
BOOM reached out to Mahua Moitra, who refuted the viral claim and said, "They (users sharing the video) have suppressed the 'eg' part (of eggs) and upped the remaining 'g' part."
Moitra also shared a clearer version of the video without the background noise and music. We reduced the speed of this video to listen to Mahua's response and clearly heard her saying 'eggs' in this version. See below:
We also found that Tamal Saha, the journalist who took the interview, put out a post on his X account on April 18, 2024, clarifying that Moitra said 'eggs'. "Let me clarify, since this is my interview. I asked @MahuaMoitra : What’s your source of energy in the morning. Mahua Moitra replied : EGGS …(anda, dim) This is ridiculous how the bhakt mandali has distorted it to make it sound like s*x. The audio is being tampered deliberately," he wrote in the post while sharing a link of the full interview.
Click here for an archive.
A previous version of the story incorrectly referred to Mahua Moitra as an MP.