Fact Check: Clipped video passed off as Gehlot supporting Amritpal Singh

A video of Ashok Gehlot is being shared with the claim that the Rajasthan Chief Minister has expressed support to the Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh and the Khalistan movement.

In the 10-second clip, he can be heard saying, “Amritpal Singh is saying that if they are talking about Hindu nation, then why I cannot talk about Khalistan? What an accurate thing he has said!” Sunil Yadav, Vice President of BJP Delhi, shared the video and wrote, “Congress CM Ashok Gehlot said if they can demand Hindu Rashtra then why can’t Amritpal demand Khalistan? The Congress is so shaken that Gehlot ji has forgotten that a Khalistani had killed Indira Gandhi.”

Several other Twitter users also shared the video. (Click here and here to see the posts.)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the viral video has been clipped and misses the full context. We ran a keyword search and found the extended version of the video tweeted by the News Tak. He can be heard saying in this video, “How dare he but I felt bad when I heard Amritpal Singh saying that if they are talking about Hindu nation, then why I cannot talk about Khalistan? What an accurate thing he has said! This is a very dangerous statement for the country.”

He further added, “Now, for the first time, someone has said that if they talk about the Hindu nation, why shouldn’t I too? Then people from the south can say the same thing. Southern states had raised the same voice 40-50 years before. The new generation does not know about it. We should think about the future of this country.”

Further, we found that the viral clip has been clipped from a video report of Dainik Bhaskar published in an article on March 31, 2023. In the article, the Hindi newspaper quoted Ashok Gehlot saying that Amriptal dares to talk about Khalistan because Mohan Bhagwat and Narendra Modi talk about Hindu Rashtra.

We also found a video of Ashok Gehlot from another event tweeted by the ANI on April 1. This video also shows Gehlot saying that Amriptal dares to talk about Khalistan because Mohan Bhagwat and Narendra Modi talk about Hindu Rashtra.

Hence, we conclude that the viral video is clipped and does not show the full context.