A cropped video of Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan speaking about the Narendra Modi-led government is being widely shared on Indian social media with a false claim that Khan admitted that for the first time in 73 years India has a 'strong and iron-willed' government.
BOOM traced the original video and found that Khan's remarks have been taken out of context. He in fact called the Indian government 'totalitarian, racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan', and not 'strong and iron-willed' as claimed by right wing netizens in India.
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The viral video, cropped from a bulletin of Pakistani channel 92 News, shows the Pakistani PM speaking from a dais.
Khan says, "Pakistan today needs a strong army. And why, because our neighbouring country...in 73 years India did not have a government like they have there today'.
At this point the video cuts to an image of the Indian Prime Minister while a female voice over can be heard repeating Imran Khan's statement.
(Original: पाकिस्तान को एक मज़बूत फ़ौज की ज़रूरत है तो आज ज़रूरत है | और क्यों ज़रूरत है, क्यूंकि हमारे साथ जो हमारा हमसाया है, तिहत्तर साल में इस तरह की हुकूमत नहीं आयी जो आज हिंदुस्तान में है |)
The viral clip has been tweeted by Shefali Vaidya with a caption saying 'You cannot have a more ringing endorsement of @narendramodi govt than this. Your sworn enemy publicly admitting that in 73 years India had never had a government as strong and iron-willed as this!'
The same video has been shared from Vaidya's Facebook account too.
Right wing website Op India published a report based on the same video. The report goes on to state that 'The misgivings evoked by the current Indian government in Pakistani Prime Minister is grounded in the audacious decisions taken by PM Modi in the last 6 years of his rule'.
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Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse image search on one of the screenshots of the viral clip and found a longer version of the video uploaded on the verified Facebook page of 92 News HD Plus. The viral video has been clipped from this 11-minute long news bulletin.
The video has been uploaded with a caption '92 News Headlines 06:00 PM'.
However, the video does not clear the context in which the Pakistani PM is referring to India.
Taking cue from this video, we found the verified YouTube page of 92 News HD and did a keyword search to find the original video.
BOOM found the original video uploaded on December 26, 2020 with a headline 'I Will Not Let Opposition Target our Army | PM Imran Khan Aggressive Speech Today | 26 December 2020'.
The clipped portion can be heard from the timestamp of 5.55 onward.
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Here's what the Pakistani PM says: Pakistan today needs a strong army. And why, because our neighbouring country...in 73 years India did not have a government like they have there today. A government which is totalitarian, racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan...never has a government like this has been formed...and see what they are doing to Kashmiris'.
(Original: पाकिस्तान को एक मज़बूत फ़ौज की ज़रूरत है तो आज ज़रूरत है | और क्यों ज़रूरत है, क्यूंकि हमारे साथ जो हमारा हमसाया है, तिहत्तर साल में इस तरह की हुकूमत नहीं आयी जो आज हिंदुस्तान में है | जो कि एक इन्तेहापसन्द, एक टोटलिटेरियन, एक रेसिस्ट, एंटी मुस्लमान और एंटी इस्लाम, एंटी पाकिस्तान ...कभी ऐसी हुकूमत नहीं आयी ..और जो उन्होंने कश्मीरियों से कर रहे हैं |)
The Pakistani PM then goes on with an aggressive attack on the country's opposition party.
While the 92 News' video doesn't specify the location where Khan was delivering his speech, we came across a live video of the same speech uploaded on the verified Facebook page of Hum News with an Urdu caption which translates to 'Prime Minister Imran Khan's speech in Chakwal'.
(Urdu: وزیراعظم عمران خان کا چکوال میں خطاب)
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