By: Rahul Adhikari
July 31 2023
No, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not use an abusive word at Rajasthan rally
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
PM Modi's statement on the grant of funds to Rajasthan was misinterpreted and shared with false claims on social media.
Claim ID 5f9ff25f
Context
An 18-second video of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at a rally is circulating on social media with the claim that he used an abusive word in his speech. The video shows the PM speaking from a podium with women in the audience. In the clip, Modi is talking, mainly in Hindi, about how much funds the state of Rajasthan was allocated when Congress was in power at the center.
Sharing the clip on Twitter, a user wrote, "Modi used the abusive word 'GAA_D' in front of the women of Rajasthan. This man has no manners, no shame." The post had garnered over 125,000 views and over 1,400 likes at the time of publishing. Several other users also quote-tweeted this post, criticizing Modi for allegedly using vulgar and abusive language. An archived version of the post can be found here.
However, Modi's speech has been misinterpreted to make a false claim.
In Fact
PM Modi had addressed a rally in Sikar, Rajasthan, on July 27, and the event was live-streamed on the YouTube channel of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). We reviewed the complete video and found that the viral clip was taken somewhere between the 15:32 and 16:05 timestamps. In his address, Modi actually said, "When Congress was in power in the center for 10 years, Rajasthan was given nearly 50 thousand crore rupees as central grant."
The last word is similar to a Hindi abusive word and was misinterpreted on social media. In the full video of his speech, after talking about Congress' contribution towards Rajasthan, Modi goes on to say that the BJP government has given more than 1.5 lakh crore rupees to the state as part of a central grant. As he was comparing the financial assistance reportedly provided by his government and the previous Congress government to Rajasthan, he used the word 'grant' in the last sentence as well.
Modi's speech was also broadcasted from the BJP's official Twitter handle, and we found no sign of him using abusive language there as well.
We also found a complete transcript of Modi's speech on his website and noted it, too, showed him saying the word 'grant.' "When the Congress government was in power at the Center for 10 years, only about Rs 50,000 crore was given to Rajasthan in the form of Central Grant. Our government has given more than one and a half lakh crore rupees to Rajasthan in the form of Central Grant in the last 9 years. But since the Congress government has been formed here, Since then only the work of obstructing the development work is going on here," Modi said.
We also did not come across any news reports stating that Modi used abusive words in the Rajasthan rally. Also, the abusive word does not fit into the context of Modi's speech, whereas 'grant' makes complete sense. Therefore, it is clear that he did not abuse during his speech but said a word has been misrepresented with false claims on social media.
According to a report by The Times of India, in the Sikar rally, Modi slammed the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan, which goes to poll later this year, and alleged that the latter was stalling the state's development.
The Verdict
PM Narendra Modi's statement during a rally in Rajasthan was misinterpreted, leading to false claims about him using abusive language. A careful analysis of his speech shows that he was saying the word 'grant.' Therefore, we mark the claim false.