On the evening of November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetization action, which would make legal tender for Rs. 500 and Rs 1,000 void.
New Delhi,UPDATED: November 11, 2022 00:30 IST
On the 6th anniversary of demonetization, many on social media shared a video of Modi claiming that the prime minister took sadistic pleasure in the suffering of the people.
By Tanujit Das: On the evening of November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetization action, which would make legal tender for Rs. 500 and Rs 1,000 void. What followed was a nationwide scarcity of money, weeks of queues at banks and ATMs, and economic hardship for many, many people (especially vulnerable social classes) across India. Even kill.
On the sixth anniversary of demonetization, many on social media shared a video of modic, claiming that the prime minister took sadistic pleasure in the suffering of the people. The video shows Modi speaking in front of an audience. He talked about demonetization. And then he said, “Marry at your house, and no money.”
While sharing the 39 second videoone person wrote on Twitter: “The cruelest example of sadistic pleasure. When a person suffers, he laughs…” The archived version of this post is here.
The AFWA investigation found that the viral video had been edited. It added two parts of the Prime Minister’s original speech, changing the context and meaning.
AFWA probe
In the viral video, a news clip from ABP, we saw the words ‘PM Narendra Modi in Japan LIVE’ written in Hindi. Subsequent searches with relevant keywords led us to news reports about his visit to Japan after the demonetization announcement.
Modi reportedly visited Japan on November 12, 2016 for the annual summit. There he met the Indian community and spoke at a meeting in Kobe . please.
We also found the longer version of the same clip, uploaded to the ABP News Youtube Channel. The 21-minute video was titled: “FULL SPEECH: Similar plan could be launched after December 30: PM Modi warns black money holders”. We found the first part of the viral video to be between 7.35 minutes and 8 minutes in the original.
The second part of the viral video has been edited. In the unedited version, Prime Minister said in Hindi: “Someone has no money for his daughter’s marriage, someone has no money for his mother’s treatment. But despite too many problems, people have welcomed the move (demonetization). I salute them.” For the betterment of the country, they are coming forward, just like Japan did in 2011.” This part was between 8.25 minutes and 9.37 minutes in the video.
The same video was uploaded on PMO’s official Youtube Channel on November 12, 2016 caption, “PM Narendra Modi’s Speech: Interacting with the Indian Community in Japan”.
On Nov 13, 2016, India today message about this. The piece was titled “PM Modi in Japan: I salute the people of India for supporting demonetization despite inconvenience.”
So we concluded that the viral video came from Modi’s 2016 speech in Japan. It is clear from the unedited or original video that Prime Minister Modi was not joking about people suffering from demonetization.