Home Minister Amit Shah today launched a frontal assault on the Congress after a deep-fake video of him saying he would remove reservations went viral. A Congress worker, Reetam Singh, from Assam’s Guwahati was arrested yesterday for allegedly making and sharing the deep-fake video of the Home Minister.
The deep-fake video showed Mr Shah talking about scrapping all reservations, while he was actually referring to removing quota only for Muslims on religious grounds in Telangana. The BJP had scrapped such a quota in Karnataka before it lost power to the Congress.
Mr Shah during a press conference today played both the videos to show what he actually said and what the doctored content projected him as saying.
“Giving quota on religious lines is unfair and cannot be allowed. We have already removed it in Karnataka. This was that I had said in the video,” Mr Shah told reporters today.
“The fake video twisted it to say the BJP will scrap all reservations,” the Home Minister said.
In fact, Mr Shah had said the BJP won’t remove reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes, and also won’t allow anyone to do so, calling it “Modi’s guarantee.”
“Rahul Gandhi says that if the BJP gets 400 seats, it will remove reservation. I want to say that we had a full majority for two terms, but Narendra Modi is a supporter of reservation. I want to say that it is a Modi guarantee that neither will the BJP remove reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs nor will it allow anyone to do so,” Mr Shah said.
Opposition parties have alleged the BJP’s call for “abki baar 400 paar” is aimed at winning 400 seats in the Lok Sabha elections to have the numbers in parliament to scrap quotas for ST, SC, and OBCs.
