As the country prepares for the general elections in 2024, Indians are looking forward to casting their ballots for the 18th Lok Sabha as well as state assembly elections in several states. There would be seven stages to the election process, starting on April 19, 2024, and ending on June 4, 2024, with vote tallying.
A claim has gone viral in the middle of this. Social media users have taken to sharing a video of a journalist challenging the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on why the organisation is not disciplining the Prime Minister or the Home Minister for using hate speech during election campaigns.
The video is being circulated to prove that, in accordance with the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) principles, the “spineless” ECI disregarded the “brave” journalist’s inquiry regarding the Commission’s inaction against the prime minister and home minister.
The video was shared by an Instagram user named Inquilaab_India, which garnered 88,117 likes.
Following this, users on X and Facebook also shared the same video.
Fact Check
We investigated the viral claim by thoroughly going through the press conference video which was available on the official channel of the Election Commission of India.
-During the ECI’s press conference on 16 March, approximately 58 minutes into the event, the CEC announced his intention to address batches of questions from the media. At 58:23, it was stated that he would take “four to five questions at one time,” indicating a collective response approach.
-The journalist featured in the viral video is spotted at the 1:00:45 timestamp during the press conference, where she introduces herself as Ashlin Mathew from the National Herald.
-In response to Mathew’s inquiry, CEC Rajiv Kumar emphasized that the ECI would take action against any MCC violators, regardless of their status as “star campaigners,” citing past election cycles’ complaint handling.
Conclusion
Thus from the fact check it is evident that the viral video is clipped. CEC did answer the questions asked by the Journalist.
DFRAC Analysis: Misleading
