May 12th 2024.
Fact-checking is a crucial part of journalism, and one recent verdict declared a claim to be misleading. The claim in question was made through a 36-second video posted on social media by Sajjala Bhargava Reddy, the media and social media coordinator of the YSR Congress Party. The video, shared on May 7, 2024, during the Indian general election, showed the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha candidate from the Opposition Telugu Desam Party, Sribharat Mathukumilli, supposedly endorsing the YSRCP's stance on making Visakhapatnam the capital of Andhra Pradesh instead of Amaravati.
The video quickly gained traction on social media, with the Telugu language news channel Sakshi, associated with Andhra Pradesh's chief minister and YSRCP's head, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, also sharing the same claim. However, upon further investigation, it was found that the video had been edited to make it appear as though Bharat was supporting Visakhapatnam as the sole capital of the state.
The original video, which was nearly seven minutes long, was an interview conducted by an Instagram influencer 'vizagforever' and uploaded on their page on May 7. In the video, Bharat was asked about the capital of Andhra Pradesh, to which he clearly stated that the TDP and their alliance's position was for Amaravati to remain the capital. He then went on to explain that while Visakhapatnam may be a faster developing city, it does not mean that it should be the capital instead of Amaravati. He cited examples of other countries where the capital city is not always the most developed one.
Moreover, Bharat also pointed out that the TDP had worked towards making Visakhapatnam a fintech hub in the past and would continue to develop it, but this did not mean that they were changing their stance on Amaravati as the capital. He clarified that the state government did not have the resources to invest in developing Amaravati at the moment, but it would remain the capital while other cities would also be developed.
It was evident from the original video that the claim of Bharat endorsing Visakhapatnam as the sole capital was misleading and had been created by editing together different parts of the interview. In fact, Bharat had previously spoken about the importance of developing Visakhapatnam alongside retaining Amaravati as the capital.
To provide some background, after the bifurcation of the composite state of Andhra Pradesh into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2014, a cluster of villages in the Guntur district was selected as the site for the development of a greenfield capital city, named Amaravati. Construction of the capital city began during the TDP's tenure, but after the YSRCP came into power in 2019, they proposed the idea of having three capitals - Amaravati, Visakhapatnam, and Kurnool. However, this plan was struck down by the High Court in 2022, and the Supreme Court ordered that Amaravati be the sole capital of the state.
In light of the ongoing election campaigns, where the TDP is advocating for Amaravati as the sole capital, and the YSRCP is promoting their plan of having three capitals, this edited video seems to be a strategic move to mislead the public. Therefore, the claim has been marked as misleading, and it is crucial to fact-check such information before sharing it on social media.
This story was originally published by Logically Facts and republished by OrissaPOST as part of the Shakti Collective, highlighting the importance of fact-checking in journalism.
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