Fact Check: Did BJP Leader Advocate Ending Reservation and Changing the Constitution?

Many people on social media have shared a video of Kirori Lal Meena, a minister from Rajasthan. In the video, he can be heard saying that the Constitution will be changed and reservations will be taken away if the BJP-led NDA government wins 400 seats in the current Lok Sabha Elections.

The PTI Fact Check Desk looked into it and found that a video clip of the minister’s speech was taken out of context and posted on social media with a false claim.

Claim

Someone on Facebook on April 25 shared a video of Kirori Lal Meena, a minister from Rajasthan. In the video, Meena is heard saying that the current government will get rid of reservations and change the Constitution if it wins 400 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The description of the post read: “राजस्थान सरकार के मंत्री किरोड़ीलाल मीणा जी खुद कह रहे है की 400 करेंगे तो मोदी जी आरक्षण ख़त्म कर सविंधान को बदल देंगे”

“Rajasthan government minister Kirori Lal Meena ji himself is saying that if 400 are done, then Modi ji will end the reservation and change the constitution,” the post said in English.

Investigation

To begin the investigation, the Desk used the InVid Tool Search to look through the movie and found several keyframes. When the Desk ran one of the keyframes through Google Lens, it found several posts that had the same video and made similar claims.

You can see three of these posts here, here, and here, and you can see old links here, here, and here.

Also, the Desk saw someone holding a microphone that said “First India News” on it. Starting with this, the Desk did a custom keyword search and found a YouTube movie that was posted on April 22 by India First News’ official channel.

The description of the video read, “आरक्षण को लेकर Kirodi Lal Meena का बड़ा बयान | Loksabha Elections 2024 | Rajasthan Politics | BJP”

It was translated into English as “Kirodi Lal Meena’s big statement about reservation.” Elections to the Lok Sabha in 2024 | Politics in Rajasthan | BJP”

The Desk found that the video was a longer version of the video that went viral.

The original video and the video shared on social media are shown below in a combined image:

There is a false belief among Congressmen that if Modiji wins more than 400 seats, he will end reservations and change the Constitution. These problems are spreading all over the country. They want to get people to vote for them by lying to them. It was Modiji who said in Barmer that Bhimrao Ambedkar could not change the Constitution, not even if he came back to life. And Amit Shah has also said that reservations will not be changed. I’m here to give this promise, especially to my SC and ST brothers. He also feels sure. The minister said in the statement, “He has promised that by pressing the lotus button on the 26th, he will make Om Birla ji victorious and send him to the Parliament.”

To find out more, the Desk looked at Kirori Lal Meena’s official X handle and saw that he had called out the people who were sharing the cut video.

The caption of the post read, “प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी स्पष्ट कर चुके हैं कि खुद बाबा साहब अंबेडकर भी आ जाएं तो भी आरक्षण खत्म नहीं होगा। कुछ शरारती तत्व सोशल मीडिया पर मेरे अधूरे बयान को इसके उलट दावे के साथ शेयर कर रहे हैं। वे इससे बाज आएं अन्यथा मुझे कानूनी कार्रवाई के लिए बाध्य होना पड़ेगा।”

A translated version of the post said, “Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji has made it clear that the reservation will not end even if Baba Saheb Ambedkar himself comes.” On social media, some naughty people are sharing my incomplete statement with the opposite claim. People should stop doing this, or I will have to go to court.”

After that, the Desk came to the conclusion that a video clip of Kirori Lal Meena’s comment was taken out of context and posted on social media with a false claim.

CLAIM

According to Kirori Lal Meena, a minister from Rajasthan, if the BJP-led NDA gets 400 seats, PM Modi will end reservations and change the Constitution.

FACT

Someone cut out a part of Kirori Lal Meena’s speech and shared it on social media with a false claim.

CONCLUSION

A video of Rajasthan minister Kirori Lal Meena was shared on social media by many people. In it, he is heard saying that the present government will get rid of reservations and change the Constitution if it wins 400 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Desk’s investigation showed that a video clip of Kirori Lal Meena’s speech was taken out of context and made up as a story to spread on social media.