As the final phase of the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh concluded, a video of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath went viral on social media with some questionable claims.
In the video, Adityanath can be heard speaking in Hindi: “This is wrong. It is a common courtesy to answer the phone, or call back later if one is busy”
A number of Facebook and Twitter users shared the clip claiming CMO officials have stopped answering Adityanath’s calls, days before UP poll results are to be announced.
“Officials aren’t taking the Chief Minister’s calls,” read one such caption in Hindi. Others predicted a change in regime in Uttar Pradesh.
Archived versions of some similar claims can be seen here and here.
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found these claims alongside the video to be misleading. The video is old and has nothing to do with the assembly polls.
The logo of R9 News is clearly visible in the video. Therefore, we searched on the news channel’s YouTube with relevant keywords. We found the original longer news report uploaded to the R9 News YouTube channel on September 26, 2020.
In the original news report, the anchor is heard saying Adityanath was unhappy with his officials for not answering public representatives’ calls. At the 38-second mark, Adityanath appeared and said, “This is a serious issue. We learnt from Kanpur and a couple of other places that the CMO did not answer MPs’ and MLAs’ calls.”
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