No, PM Modi did not say he would 'abolish reservation' on winning Lok Sabha election

What is the claim?

During the ongoing Indian general election, a video circulating on social media purports to show Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that he will abolish the reservation system if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returns to power.

The video comprises three clips — two featuring Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and one featuring Modi. In one of the clips, Modi appears to say, “If Modi wins, then reservation will go away.” In the second clip, Gandhi asserts, “Narendra Modi is attempting to destroy the constitution. His MPs have explicitly stated that if they win the election, they will alter and abolish the constitution.” In the other clip, he declares, “Conversely, the Congress party and the INDIA alliance are striving to preserve the constitution.”

One user shared the video with the caption, “When Narendra Modi himself admits that he would remove Reservation system if he comes to power. BJP wants ab ki baar 400 par to change the Constitution of India. Congress and Rahul Gandhi will never let that happen! We will fight till our last breath! Not my words but his 👇.” (sic) This post garnered over 48,000 views at the time of writing. An archived version of the post can be accessed here.

Screenshots of the viral posts. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the claim is false. A video of Modi criticizing the Congress party has been selectively edited and shared out of context. 

How did we find the truth?

We examined the recent election rallies live-streamed from Narendra Modi's official Bharatiya Janata Party YouTube channel (archive here). Our research indicated that the clip originated from Modi’s rally in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, on April 25. The complete speech lasted 44:16 minutes, and the viral footage was extracted from the 25:33-minute to 25:39-minute segment of the original video.

The part where Modi states, “If Modi wins, then reservation will go away,” was shared without context. He was actually satirizing Congress and stated, “Once again, Congress has released their flop film. There are two dialogues in Congress’ film. From top to bottom, everyone is repeating the same dialogue. The first dialogue is, if Modi wins, dictatorship will ensue. Do you agree with this? Despite that, their flop film continues to play. The second is that if Modi wins, then reservation will disappear.”

Right after the last statement about reservation, Modi said, “Such lies they keep propagating, but you must have seen, as soon as the trailer for this Congress film appeared in their manifesto, people read it and the country came to know Congress’ real face, their real intentions and Congress’ hidden agenda behind curtains.”

Modi further criticized Congress’ OBC  “Karnataka Model” and lambasted the party for attempting to reallocate reservation to their “vote bank.” We watched the full speech and noted that he did not say anything about abolishing reservations.

What was Rahul Gandhi talking about?

We discovered that the two clips of Gandhi were taken from Congress’ election rally in Bijapur, Karnataka. The original speech was live-streamed from the Indian National Congress’s YouTube channel (archive here) on April 26.

The first clip was taken from the 10:34-minute to 10:50-minute segment of the original video, and the last clip was extracted from the 11:10-minute to 11:20-minute segment.

Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP leader Anantkumar Hegde and BJP Lok Sabha candidate Jyoti Mirdha from Nagaur, Rajasthan, stated that they would “change the Constitution” if BJP assumes power. Hegde claimed that the party would require 400 seats to “change the Constitution.” Mridha stated, “Many tough decisions must be made for the country's benefit. For this, we have to amend the constitution.”

Several Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, have referenced such statements in their election rallies and alleged that the Modi government will abolish and alter the Constitution if they regain power.

Modi has responded to such allegations by Congress, stating, “They are telling the people that BJP will change the Constitution and end reservations. I want to tell them even if Babasaheb himself came and called for ending reservations and changing the Constitution, it will not happen.” Furthermore, Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah has criticized the Congress for what he termed their “lies” that the BJP intends to change the Constitution and end reservations if it wins the Lok Sabha polls.

Several such false claims have been circulating on social media, featuring edited videos of BJP leaders. These videos misleadingly suggest that the party leaders plan to change the Constitution and terminate the reservation system in India if they secure a victory in the Lok Sabha elections. Logically Facts has debunked these claims, and you can read more about them here and here.

The verdict

A selectively edited video of Modi has been circulated, purporting that he stated he would abolish reservation if he wins the general elections. In reality, the prime minister was criticizing Congress in the original speech, asserting that they falsely claimed he intended to take such a step. Consequently, we have marked this claim as false.