How Leftists used a cropped 4-year-old video of Ladakh MP’s wife speaking about Kanhaiya Kumar to spread falsehood

On 29th July, Leftist fake news peddlers, opposition parties, and their supporters shared a video of Bharatiya Janata Party MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal’s wife Sonam Wangmo’s discussion with India Today’s Rahul Kanwal with claims that Wangmo called Kanhaiya Kumar a ‘true patriot’.

She is Sonam Wangmo, wife of BJP MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal

She studied in JNU with Kanhaiya Kumar.

Sonam is blaming media & BJP for portraying Kanhaiya as anti national

She said Kanhaiya didn’t raise any anti India slogan as she was present there, Kanhaiya is a true patriot.… pic.twitter.com/H0Bo8HjR08

— Dr Nimo Yadav (@niiravmodi) July 29, 2023

Wangmo is a JNU alumni. In the video shared on Twitter, she spoke about how the national media grilled Kumar and claimed he was not present at the scene when anti-India slogans were raised. Niiravmodi, a fake news peddler, claimed she blamed the media and BJP for portraying Kanhaiya as anti-national. The Twitter handle further claimed that Wangmo said Kanhaiya did not raise any anti-India slogans, and she was present at the scene. Furthermore, it was claimed she called Kanhaiya “a true patriot” and not a part of the tukde-tukde gang. “BJP MP wife is calling out BJP, people have started speaking out,” the Twitter handle wrote.

Several other Twitter users shared the video, including official channels of opposition parties and leaders.

बीजेपी सांसद की पत्नी और जेएनयू की पूर्व स्टूडेंट कन्हैया कुमार के लिए क्या कह रही हैं ?
सुनिए https://t.co/hpZuldEUXM

— Ajit Anjum (@ajitanjum) July 29, 2023

MP Congress shared the cropped video and questioned to what extent BJP leaders would hide their failures by diverting the attention of the public.

कन्हैया कुमार ने नहीं लगाए थे देश विरोधी नारे :

लद्दाख से बीजेपी सांसद जामयांग सेरिंग नामग्याल की पत्नी और JNU की पूर्व छात्रा व प्रत्यक्षदर्शी ने इंडिया टुडे को दिए गए इंटरव्यू के दौरान घटना की कहा – कन्हैया कुमार ने नही लगाए थे देश विरोधी नारे।

भाजपा नेता कब तक अपनी विफलताओं… pic.twitter.com/Sou0oY41v1

— MP Congress (@INCMP) July 29, 2023

Twitter user The Hawk Eye busted the claims. He pointed out that the video was cropped out of context. Umar Khalid’s name was cunningly omitted from the video shared by Niiravmodi and others. The video was from the “Jab We Met” show from August 2019, and it was streamed on India Today and Lallantop. The entire candid discussion with Kanwal was about how the couple dealt with opposite ideologies at home. However, the video was picked five years later to satisfy the political agenda of Congress and other opposition parties.

This 4 year old cropped video has gone viral with misleading caption.

Which part has been cropped & why?

BJP MP’s wife said that Kanhaiya Kumar wasn’t there (on 9.2.16 tukde-tukde slogans) *but held Umar Khalid responsible who did it despite ban in the campus*.
1/ pic.twitter.com/TUrN4ZSHFP

— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) July 30, 2023

In the video, Wangmo never blamed BJP for portraying Kanhaiya as anti-national. She did not call Kanhaiya a true patriot. Furthermore, it was not about calling out BJP as projected in the recent trend on social media.

In entire 5 min clip of “Jab We Met” show of India Today released on Aug’19, MP’s wife Sonam maintains Kanhaiyya was not there that particular time and never used words like patriot or BJP or anything politically morivated.

3/

— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) July 30, 2023

In a tweet thread, The Hawk Eye mentioned that the specific discussion about Kanhaiya Kumar revolved around a fake video that was circulated at that time. In fact, Rahul Kanwal also mentioned that his channel busted the fake video where three-four audios were mixed to make it look like Kanhaiya Kumar was raising anti-India slogans.

2019 video where Rahul Kanwal spoke to Ladakh MP and his wife

During the episode, Kanwal visited Jamyang’s house and met his wife and other family members. During a candid discussion with the couple, Kanwal pointed out that Wangmo studied at JNU, which is known for its communist ideology. He asked how they got married with such ideological differences, to which Wangmo said ideology does not interfere in such matters.

He questioned how they manage the ideological differences at home, to which Wangmo replied Jamyang often tries to convince him about his party’s ideological stand. Jamyang said political ideology and the situation at the house are different matters, and theirs was not a political marriage.

At that time, Wangmo points out that media grilled Kanhaiya Kumar, to which Kanwal replied, “We saved him also. We ran a story to point out that the video being circulated was fake. 3-4 audios were merged to make it against him.”

Wangmo said, “It was fake because it only happened in front of my hostel. So many people who were not affiliated with political parties witnessed it. We know Kanhaiya was not there. Kanhaiya was caught by the police later. He got arrested just because he was a student leader.”

Kanwal asked whether she believed what BJP did with Kanhaiya Kumar was wrong. Wangmo said, “Whatever happened with Kanhaiya was wrong. It should have happened with the other person, Umar Khalid, and his party. (this part was omitted from the video shared on social media). His party was already banned on the campus.”

Kanwal then asked people to believe Kanhaiya was the leader of the Tukde Tukde gang. She said, “This is the perception of the people. My brother-in-law is also against him.” Jamyang said, “Whatever it is, we are not going to let the Tukde Tukde gang get away with it”. Kanwal then asked his wife if she was part of the Tukde Tukde gang, and she immediately said no.

When Jamyang said everyone saw what happened, she said, “Whatever was shown to the public was wrong. I can only say Kanhaiya was not there. I was there. I just came from my lab. I saw what was happening. I saw huge healthy masked men raising the slogans. Even we got shocked. Such slogans were never raised on the campus.

After seeing the video, it was evident that Wangmo neither gave the ‘tukde-tukde’ gang a clean chit nor blamed BJP for misleading the public. They talked about the fake video, which was busted later by the media. Interestingly, the video was shared after removing the part where she accused Umar Khalid for the anti-India slogans and pointed out his party was already banned on the campus for indulging in such activities before the incident.