An old video of Home Minister Amit Shah saying that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has freed the people of Uttar Pradesh from former gangster turned legislator Mukhtar Ansari is being shared on social media falsely claiming that it a recent speech Shah gave after the death of Ansari.
BOOM found that the viral video is from a public rally of Shah held in Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh in April 2019 during the election campaign before the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections that year.
Jailed former legislator Ansari (63) died on March 28, 2024, due to cardiac arrest according to government doctors after he fainted in his cell in Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh and was rushed to the Rani Durgavati Medical College at around 8:25pm on Thursday, after vomiting and losing consciousness. Ansari had been convicted in more than seven different cases, including a murder case. His death comes three months after his lawyers moved the Supreme Court alleging the possibility that he may be eliminated in custody. Ansari was elected as an MLA from Mau five times and had initially represented the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), then served two terms as an Independent from 2002 to 2012, and then followed by a win under his own party, the Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED), in 2012, and finally returned to the BSP ahead of the 2017 assembly polls.
In the viral video Shah can be heard saying when translated to English, "If we have done any big work, it is that we have given freedom from Nizam, Do you know what Nizam is? If you dont know I will tell you. In Nizam - N means BJP gave freedom from Nasimuddin Siddiqui, I means BJP gave freedom from Imran Masood, BJP gave freedom from Azam Khan, BJP gave freedom from Atiq Ahmed, and BJP also gave freedom from Mukhtar Ansari. If this SP-BSP alliance comes to power in Uttar Pradesh, then there will be Nizam rule again in UP."
The video was posted on X by the handle @MukeshMohannn with the caption when translated from Hindi reads, "Amit Shah is saying that Bharatiya Janata Party got us freedom from Mukhtar Ansari. Doesn't it appear as if Shah poisoned Ansari with his own hands?"
(In Hindi - अमित शाह कह रहे हैं कि मुख्तार अंसारी से मुक्ति भारतीय जनता पार्टी ने दिलाई। क्या ऐसा प्रतीत नहीं हो रहा, जैसे शाह ने अपने हाथ से अंसारी को ज़हर दिया हो?)
Click here to view, and here for an archive
The same video is being shared on Facebook with the false claim.
Click here to view, and here for an archive
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video of Amit Shah saying that the BJP has the given the people freedom from jailed former legislator Mukhtar Ansari is from April 2019, and not a recent speech after the death of Ansari in jail.
On watching the viral video, in the first eight seconds video, we can see the date in the corner - 10.09.19 and Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh written on the top left corner.
Taking a hint from this, we can ran a keyword search on YouTube and found the original speech uploaded on BJP's official handle on April 10, 2019.
From the 19.27 minutes timestamp we can see the same portion as in the viral video. This speech was given during the election campaign before the UP assembly elections that month in the state.