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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Politics & government fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about politics & government. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

12,754 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYPolitics & government

Kanhaiya Kumar exposing Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a clip presented as Kanhaiya Kumar exposing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. FACTLY reports that Kejriwal appears in footage shown during the clip, but says this presentation leaves out the speech’s original context: “The video clip is a truncated part of Kanhaiya’s speech at a public meeting in 2018.” To check the clip, the review says it searched YouTube using the keywords “Kanhaiya Kumar speech” and found a longer recording titled “Manthan with Kanhaiya Kumar @Manthan Samvaad 2018.” FACTLY reports that the statements in the circulated clip match this longer speech, which it describes as a 1-hour-and-53-minute address at the Manthan Samvaad public-discourse platform. In the longer recording, Kumar is answering an audience question about commenting on someone’s personal life. The review says his remarks about a person’s mother and wife refer to Narendra Modi, not Kejriwal; it identifies the response from 49:54 and says the discussion is in the context of Modi from 54:00. Thus, although the clip’s accompanying footage shows Kejriwal, the review’s comparison with the longer speech indicates that Kumar’s remarks were about Modi. The clip’s framing as an exposé of Kejriwal is therefore misleading.

The QuintPolitics & government

Kanhaiya Kumar exposes Arvind Kejriwal

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The Quint investigated a viral clip presented as Kanhaiya Kumar exposing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The clip juxtaposed Kumar’s remarks about a son photographing himself touching his mother’s feet with footage of Kejriwal doing so. The key question was whom Kumar was discussing, rather than whether the footage of Kejriwal existed. The review says the circulating clip was edited and that Kumar’s remarks referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not Kejriwal. [S1: “The video in circulation is a clipped version and the comment made by Kanhaiya Kumar was in reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and not Arvind Kejriwal.”] To check the attribution, The Quint searched YouTube for Kanhaiya Kumar and located a Manthan India video titled “Manthan with Kanhaiya Kumar @Manthan Samvaad 2018.” The review reports that the video was 1 hour 53 minutes long and that Kumar made the remarks at 54 minutes while answering a question. In the surrounding discussion, Kumar referred to a 90-year-old mother standing in ATM queues after demonetisation, then said people should judge a prime minister by his work. That context identifies the subject of the criticism as Modi. [S1: “In the 1 hour 53 minute long video, at 54 minutes, while responding to a question, he can be heard making the viral statement in context to Narendra Modi.”] The review further reports that Manthan confirmed the recording came from its event in Hyderabad on 2 October 2018. Kumar does not mention Kejriwal in the cited discussion. The Kejriwal footage was a separate, later clip: the review says it showed him seeking his mother’s blessings before filing his election nomination and identifies the video as from 20 January. Combining that footage with Kumar’s earlier remarks made the clip appear to target Kejriwal, although the longer recording supplies a different context. [S1: “He does not mention Kejriwal.”]

FACTLYPolitics & government

Rahul Gandhi with ISI Chief in Dubai.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo said to show Rahul Gandhi with the chief of Pakistan’s ISI in Dubai. FACTLY’s review says the man identified in the post as the “ISI Chief” is Dr Azad Moopen, not the ISI chief; it describes him as chairman and managing director of Aster DM Healthcare. To identify the setting and people in the image, the review reports using Google Reverse Image Search, which returned an article by Mathrubhumi with similar images. That article said the photo was taken during Rahul Gandhi’s UAE visit in January 2019. FACTLY also cites a Congress tweet describing Rahul Gandhi and Sam Pitroda meeting business leaders at a breakfast hosted by Sunny Varkey. The review says Mathrubhumi listed businessmen in the photo, and that looking up those names helped identify Moopen. The review’s conclusion is specific to the person in this photograph: it says Moopen is not the ISI chief and identifies him as a healthcare executive. It also notes that he received the Padma Shri in 2011. The account therefore contradicts the post’s identification of the pictured man, while placing the image in the context of a business-leaders’ breakfast during Gandhi’s UAE visit.

The QuintPolitics & government

PM Modi's wife Jashodaben protesting in Shaheen Bagh

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim was that Narendra Modi’s wife, Jashodaben, had gone to Shaheen Bagh to take Rs 500 and join the protests against the Citizenship law. The Quint examined the picture circulated with that claim and found it did not show the ongoing Shaheen Bagh protests: it was from 2016, when Jashodaben joined an NGO’s hunger strike in Mumbai in support of slum dwellers facing demolition during the monsoon. The review describes two checks. A reverse-image search led to an old tweet by then-AAP leader Alka Lamba, who questioned the picture’s authenticity; the claim in a post she retweeted said Jashodaben was protesting with Muslim women for their rights. A keyword search then led the reviewers to a 2016 article in The Week featuring the same picture and describing the Mumbai protest. The image’s earlier provenance and reported setting contradict its use as evidence that Jashodaben was at Shaheen Bagh.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturPolitics & government

Manche Menschen glauben, dass Bundestagsabgeordnete nicht arbeiten, wenn sie nicht im Plenarsaal zu sehen sind. Die Webseite "opposition24.com" suggeriert nun in einer Überschrift, dass Politiker "stinkend faul" seien, weil zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt "mehr Besucher als Abgeordnete im Bundestag" gesessen hätten. Dies soll ein beigefügter Screenshot beweisen. "Ist das Parlament "beschlussfähig" und wo sind die ganzen "Volksvertreter"", heißt es in dem Artikel fragend.

Publisher’s rating: Bei der abgebildeten Sitzung des Bundestages handelt es sich um die sogenannte Fragestunde am 15. Januar 2020. Die Abgeordneten sind nicht verpflichtet, daran teilzunehmen, und können währenddessen andere Arbeiten erledigen. Der Bundestag muss zu diesem Zeitpunkt nicht beschlussfähig sein, weil er in den Fragestunden nichts beschließt. In den Gebäuden des Bundestages fanden zur gleichen Zeit mehrere Sitzungen parallel statt.