A 17-second video of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi is going viral on social media with a claim that the chief minister disrespected Gandhi. The video shows Adityanath rushing towards Gandhi's statue, offering flowers, a garland, and rushing back.
However, we found that the video was a shorter version of the original, which is a little over seven minutes long. It was uploaded on Adityanath's official Twitter handle on 30 January and showed the chief minister sitting down for a prayer after garlanding the statue.
Additionally, we also found photographs from the event that showed him bowing down to the statue with folded hands.
CLAIM
The video is being shared with a claim that reads, "30 सेकेंड में सब कुछ हो गया बिना हाथ जोड़े चल भी दिए बाप्पू".
[Translation: All done in 30 seconds, he (Adityanath) left without even folding his hands.]
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Photo: Facebook/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We extracted multiple keyframes using the InVID WeVerify Google Chrome extension and conducted a reverse image search on some of them. While going through the search results, we came across the original video posted on UP CMO's official Twitter handle.
The original video was over seven minutes long and had the viral clip at the very beginning.
The video further showed other people offering their respects, following which the CM and some other officials sat down in front of the statue to attend a prayer service.
The video was uploaded on 30 January, Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary.
Taking a cue from that we conducted a keyword search for more photographs from the day and found a photo story on Zee News that showed various leaders offering their respects to Gandhi in the country.
Adityanath's photograph was also one of them and it showed him with bowing down to Gandhi with folded hands.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Zee News/Screenshot)
The moment when the CM was bowing down was not captured in the video because the focus of the camera was towards the face of the statue, as can be seen in the photo above.
We compared the photograph with the viral video and found that it was from this year.
Comparison of the Zee News photo and the viral image.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
We also found an image on news agency IANS from the same day.
Photograph from IANS.
(Photo: IANS Photo/Screenshot)
Evidently, the longer version of the video and the images show that the UP CM didn't leave the venue immediately after garlanding the statue. He bowed down and stayed for a prayer service.
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