Newsmeter: As the voting for the third phase is being held in 93 constituencies spread over 11 States and Union Territories for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a Hindi newspaper clipping featuring an article about BJP national president JP Nadda has been circulating on social media. The news headline has Nadda appealing for the NDA’s victory to save people from the 300 terrorists waiting to enter India.
Claim:
‘Nadda said 300 terrorists are going to enter the country, appeals to make NDA win,’ reads the translation of the Hindi headline.
Sharing the paper clip (Archive), an X handle called India Alliance, wrote, “Terrorists have arrived in the election … but how does Nadda know that 300 terrorists are going to enter the country? (translated from Hindi)”
“It was already being speculated that this could happen. And it happened. How do leaders know that there will be attacks during elections? Is it right to put the country’s army in danger to win elections? When there is no politics to be done on issues, people must be emotionally manipulated to get votes (translated from Hindi),” wrote another X user who shared the paper clipping. (Archive)
Investigation:
NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading as the paper clipping is four years old and published by the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar.
We ran a keyword search and found a report with the same headline and cover image as the viral clipping published by Dainik Bhaskar on October 21, 2020. According to the newspaper, Nadda while addressing a public meeting at fort ground in Bihar’s Buxar had appealed to the people to vote for NDA raising the issue of border security. Nadda mentioned that there were reports of 300 terrorists trying to infiltrate India.
We also found Nadda’s speech delivered in Buxar published on BJP’s YouTube channel on October 20, 2020. At around 43:19-minute timestamp, Nadda is heard saying that there is ‘a report of 300 terrorists trying to infiltrate our border but will be eliminated by our brave soldiers.’
Hence, we conclude that an old paper clipping has been falsely linked to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Further, we accessed the e-paper of Dainik Bhaskar and found the identical paper clipping on the first page of the Buxar edition published on October 21, 2020.
We also found Nadda’s speech delivered in Buxar published on BJP’s YouTube channel on October 20, 2020. At around 43:19 – minute timestamp, Nadda is heard saying that there is ‘a report of 300 terrorists trying to infiltrate our border but will be eliminated by our brave soldiers’.
Conclusion: Old paper clipping has been falsely linked to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Viral claim is false.
(This story was originally published by newsmeter, and republished by Lighthouse Journalism as a part of the Shakti Collective)
