Did Andhra home minister dismiss media's question on child sexual abuse? No, video is edited

What is the claim?

A 10-second video clip of Andhra Pradesh Home Minister Vangalapudi Anitha has been circulated with the claim that she dismissed journalists’ questions about child sexual abuse. In the clip, Anitha is heard speaking in Telugu: “There is time for everything, sir. Am I supposed to hold a baton or a gun and move around to do something?”

A post on X (formerly Twitter), archived here, shared this video with the caption: “Journalists: Murders and rape of minors are increasing in the state, Madam. Home Minister: What should I do? (translated verbatim from Telugu).” By the time of writing, the post had garnered nearly 70,000 views. Additional archived posts are available here and here. 

Screenshot of the social media posts (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts) 

However, the video is edited. Anitha's full response to questions about child sexual abuse is missing. The viral clip only shows part of her response to a different question.

What did we find?

The journalist's question is not included in the video, although a muffled voice of a journalist can be heard at the beginning of the clip.

We identified that the clip is from a press meeting organized by Anitha on July 18, 2024, which was live-streamed (archive here) by various Telugu news channels, including ABN-Andhrajyothy (archive here). The viral segment appears from 23:44 to 23:52 in the full video.

In the longer video, the discussion includes alleged attacks on Telugu Desam Party (TDP) members during the 2019-2024 period under YSRCP governance. A journalist questions Anitha about the lack of action on these attacks. Her full response was: “There is time for everything. Am I supposed to hold a baton or a gun and move around to do something? We need to build trust. Trust develops over time. Chandrababu Naidu (the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh) taking charge is 50 percent trust built. The remaining 50 percent comes from our actions and reactions. We support what Chandrababu Naidu and Lokesh (Nara Lokesh, Naidu’s son) said. Any necessary actions will be taken legally.”

Lokesh is also the Minister of Human Resources Development, Information Technology, Electronics & Communications, and the General Secretary of the TDP.

We also found that Anitha was asked about child sexual abuse incidents, to which she provided a detailed response.

At the 20:22 timestamp, a journalist asks, “There are incidents of murder and rape of minor girls. What do you have to say about it?”

Anitha responds: “There are a series of incidents involving minor girls, as we know. What I say is that we — the police department —  are looking into it. Most of the incidents involve people in close proximity to these girls or their close relatives. We have to talk about these incidents, we have to bring them to a conclusion, and we have to take action. We will definitely take action on these incidents. At the same time, we will start an awareness program, a special drive, involving the Women and Child Welfare Department, Education Department, and the Police Department. For the girls in grades below 6, we will initiate an awareness program about good and bad touch. From Grade 6 to the college level, what I have seen is that girls in Standards 8 and 9 are being trapped. We plan to organize an awareness drive for the girls of these grades, their parents, and teachers. While all this is a side of the coin, the police as an institution has weakened in the past five years. Previously, there was a fingerprint identification system in place. When a criminal is caught, we can identify his criminal history by fingerprint identification. This system was completely absent in the last five years.”

The press conference was also covered by another Telugu channel, 10 TV (archive here). The question and answer about child sexual abuse can be seen between 02:18 and 04:04, and the discussion about alleged attacks is between 05:37 and 05:45.

This evidence shows that the minister’s answer about alleged attacks on the TDP cadre was incorrectly presented as her response to questions about child sexual abuse.

The TDP stated on their official X account (archive here) on July 19, 2024, that the party has filed a case against the video’s circulation.

Screenshot of the X post by TDP (Source: X/@JaiTDP) 

The verdict

An edited video of Andhra Pradesh Home Minister Vangalapudi Anitha was misleadingly shared to falsely claim she dismissed a question about child sexual abuse. In the original video, her response to that question was different.