As an Indian minister has been criticized for his ‘disrespectful’ comments about Bhimrao Ambedkar – one of the architects of the Indian Constitution – a clipped video has been shared with the false claim that an opposition figure is insulting Ambedkar. The original video from 2012 shows that the comments made by Arvind Kejriwal – leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – were taken out of context, and that he was actually referring to the charter of another opposition group, not the Indian one. constitution.
“No one has insulted constitution writer Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar more than AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal,” said a Hindi-language post shared on Facebook on December 24, 2024.
“He says Baba Saheb wrote the Constitution under the influence of alcohol. Arvind Kejriwal should first apologize and then explain his entire statement as to why he made such a big accusation and insulted Bharat Ratna Baba Saheb,” the post continued.
Ambedkar, a champion of civil justice for the socially marginalized Dalit community, was one of the key architects of the Indian Constitution. His followers called him Baba Saheb.
The post also included a nine-second black and white video of Kejriwal speaking in Hindi: “So we were sitting together and someone said whoever wrote the Constitution must have written it after drinking alcohol.”
Screenshot of the fake post, taken on December 25, 2024
The clip circulated after opposition politicians – including Kejriwal – deemed Indian Home Minister Amit Shah’s comments about Ambedkar on December 18, 2024 “disrespectful” (archived link).
During a debate on the Constitution in Parliament, Shah said: “It has become a fashion to say Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar. If they had taken God’s name that many times, they would have secured a place in Parliament. heaven.”
User comments indicate that they believed the claim to be true.
One user wrote, “Kejriwal is a chameleon, look how he talked about Baba Saheb Ambedkar.”
“Kejriwal should be arrested for saying such derogatory things about Ambedkar,” wrote another.
But the original video shows that the AAP chief actually made a mockery of the Indian National Congress party’s constitution.
Cut video
A reverse image search on Google found a longer and colored version of the video uploaded to the AAP’s official YouTube channel on December 3, 2012 (archived link).
The description states that Kejriwal is addressing a public meeting on November 25, 2012 in Delhi, a day before the party was officially launched (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the fake posts (left) and the video uploaded to the AAP’s YouTube channel (right):
Screenshot comparison of the clip shared in fake posts (left) and the video uploaded to the AAP’s YouTube channel (right)
The AAP leader says at 4:21 in the video, “Other parties’ constitutions are lies, they do not implement their own laws. During this time I read the charters of all parties. The Congress party constitution says that no member of Congress shall drink alcohol.”
He is then shown saying the comments in the fake video, before criticizing other parties’ charters while explaining his party’s agenda.
AFP published a photo of Kejriwal in its archives on November 25, 2012, showing him wearing the same shirt during the rally (archived link).
