A viral video claiming to show a Times Now Navbharat news clip featuring Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and a female voice-over claiming that Hooda has endorsed Rahul Gandhi's statement about ending caste-based reservations, is doctored and fake.
The fake video, which has the Times Now Navbharat channel logo and includes breaking news graphics and music, is deceptively designed to look like a news broadcast.
The female voice over and graphics in the video claim that Hooda made anti-reservation remarks. The fake clip further claims Hooda supported party leader Rahul Gandhi's statements in the United States calling for an end to reservations in India.
Haryana goes to polls on October 5, 2024 with results to be announced on October 8. Hooda who was the state chief minister till 2019 is the current leader of opposition against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nayab Singh Saini.
The doctored clip is being shared with text claiming, "Congress CM candidate Bhupendra Hooda comes out in support of Rahul's statement in US of ending reservation"
The video is also being shared on X with a similar caption.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the video uses visuals from unrelated media interactions of Bhupinder Singh Hooda with a fake voice over to make the false claim.
A reverse image search on a keyframe from the video using keywords 'Bhupinder Hooda + Times Now Navbharat' led us to a video uploaded on YouTube by the channel on May 25, 2024, when Haryana voted for the Lok Sabha Assembly Elections.
The visuals showing Hooda speaking to media persons matched one of the footage of him in the viral video.
In the original video, Hooda is seen talking to reporters after casting his vote and says that things look in favour of Congress.
The viral video also has other footage of Hooda talking to reporters and a specific keyword search led us to the original video from September 11 where he is talking about nominations of Congress candidates. The original video uploaded by several news channels including NDTV, ABP and ANI shows Hooda answering questions about the party's alliance with AAP in Haryana for the upcoming elections.
In both the videos Hooda does not make any comment about reservations.
Recently, Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi who is visiting the US, said the party would think of ending reservations "when India was a fair place". The comment made at a talk with Georgetown University students created a political furore against Gandhi who later issued a clarification saying his comments were misinterpreted and added that, "...let me make it clear – I am not against reservation. We will take reservation beyond the limit of 50 per cent."
Additionally, the text font and voice over in the viral video do not match any news broadcast by Times Now Navbharat. In a post on X, the channel called out the viral graphics in the video as fake.