A video purportedly showing former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru claiming that he was not involved in India’s freedom struggle and had opposed the fight for independence is going viral on social media.
The video is being shared with subtitles suggesting that Nehru said, “I was not involved in the fight for independence at all. In fact, I opposed it.” Social media users are using the purported statement to claim that Nehru himself admitted that he had not participated in the freedom struggle.
The above post can be seen here. (Archive)
NM VERIFIED
NewsMobile verified the claim and found that it has been cropped and misleading.
The NM team initiated verification of the viral video and found that the claim is false. The viral clip has been cropped and misleadingly edited, while the subtitles alter the context of Nehru’s actual statement.
During the verification, we carefully listened to the audio in the viral clip. The keyword in the statement is “he”, not “I”, as suggested by the viral subtitles.
A keyword search led us to the longer version of Nehru’s interview preserved by Prasar Bharati Archives. The footage is from May 1964 and is believed to be Nehru’s last television interview.
At around the 14:34-minute mark, the interviewer tells Nehru that he, Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah were all involved in the period surrounding India’s Independence and Partition, including the fight for independence from British rule.
Responding to the interviewer, Nehru says, “Mr Jinnah was not involved in the fight for independence at all. In fact, he opposed it.”
The complete footage makes it clear that Nehru was referring to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and not himself.
The viral version removes the surrounding context and uses misleading subtitles to make it appear as though Nehru was admitting that he had not participated in the freedom struggle and had opposed it.
Therefore, the viral clip does not accurately represent what Nehru said in the original interview.
Hence, it is evident that the viral video is cropped and misleadingly edited, falsely portraying Jawaharlal Nehru as saying that he was not involved in India’s independence struggle and had opposed it. In the original interview, Nehru was referring to Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
