Did Amit Shah Cast Doubts On BJP’s Election Promises? Viral Claim Is False

A video of Home Minister Amit Shah is being shared with a misleading claim that he has said election promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold no meaning and are forgotten after the polls are over.

What’s the claim

A purported video of Home Minister Amit Shah is being shared on social media with a claim that he said there is no meaning to the promises made during elections, implying that he was referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the six-second clip, Shah can be heard saying, “That’s why I say there is no meaning to this ‘guarantee’. They say it during elections and then forget.”

Sharing the video, a user on X (formerly Twitter) wrote that this is a poll gimmick and urged the voters to be careful, adding that this is a “big expose on #ModikiGuarantee by Amit Shah.” Archived versions of such posts can be found here and here. The clip has also gained traction on Facebook and Instagram, where users have said that Mr Shah himself “exposed” his party.

Screenshot of claims made online. (Source: X/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this is misleading. In the original video, Mr Shah was referring to the guarantees made by the Indian National Congress (INC) and not by the prime minister.

What we found

The video is a small segment from Amit Shah’s recent interview to Smita Prakash, editor-in-chief of news agency Asian News International (ANI). The original video was published on the agency’s official YouTube channel (archived here) on May 15, 2024.

During the interview, at the 25:15 minute mark, Ms Prakash asked Mr Shah about Congress’ guarantees which he had previously referred to as “Chinese Guarantees”. In response, he said, “I called it “Chinese guarantee” on the basis of its durability.” He then said, “I just went to Telangana. The women there are still waiting for their Rs 12,000, the farmers are waiting for their loan waivers, and the girls are waiting for their promised scooters. These were guarantees made by Rahul ji. Now you try to find Rahul ji.”

Ms Prakash then goes on to say that the elections in the southern part are over and Rahul Gandhi has moved to the northern part of the country. Following this, at 26:05 minute mark, Mr Shah made the statement featured in the viral video, saying, “But even when he was in the South, he would make promises, which is why I say that this guarantee is meaningless. They say it during elections and then forget.”

There’s no mention of Mr Shah saying “Modi ki Guarantee” anywhere before or after he made the viral remark. ANI also shared this part of Mr Shah’s interview from May 15, 2024, on their official X channel (archived here).

The verdict

This clip has been clipped to misrepresent Amit Shah’s original remarks. Originally, Mr Shah was accusing the Congress party for not fulfilling their poll promises. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.

(This story was originally published by Logically Facts and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective)