It’s Not a Bird… It’s Not a Plane, It’s a Dodgy Video Posted by Piyush Goyal
Piyush Goyal, the Union minister for railways, has posted a video of Vande Bharat Express with the text, “It’s a bird…It’s a plane…Watch India’s first semi-high speed train built under ‘Make in India’ initiative, Vande Bharat Express zooming past at lightening speed.“. The same video has been posted on Goyal’s official Twitter and Facebook accounts.
It’s a bird...It’s a plane...Watch India’s first semi-high speed train built under ‘Make in India’ initiative, Vande Bharat Express zooming past at lightening speed. pic.twitter.com/KbbaojAdjO
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) February 10, 2019
The video was also retweeted by National General Secretary of BJP, Ram Madhav.
A delight to see d world class train made in India. Kudos to GoI n specially to Indian Railways https://t.co/C8eslwzUnu
— Ram Madhav (@rammadhavbjp) February 10, 2019
Republic TV also published an article based on Piyush Goyal’s tweet with the title “WATCH: Piyush Goyal Gives A Glimpse Of Bird And Plane-like Vande Bharat Express“.
WATCH: Piyush Goyal gives a glimpse of bird and plane-like Vande Bharat Expresshttps://t.co/88PordtQpo
— Republic (@republic) February 10, 2019
Soon after Piyush Goyal, posted this video, comments on the minister’s Facebook page suggested that the video posted is not original, and has in fact been sped up.
What is the truth?
We looked up the YouTube link posted by the Facebook user in the comments section of Piyush Goyal’s video post. The video has been posted on a YouTube channel called “The Rail Mail” on December 20, 2018. The about section of this YouTube Channel suggests that the videos on this channel are posted by train enthusiasts, also known as ‘Train spotters’. The YouTube channel also has its Facebook page, and the Facebook user who contested the minister is an admin on the Facebook page.
The portion of the video that Piyush Goyal tweeted starts at the 26th second in the video below.
From the above video, it is clear that the video posted by the railway minister was a clipped portion of the above YouTube video, which was then sped up to twice its original speed. A side-by-side speed comparison of the video posted by Piyush Goyal and the original video can be seen below.
The video was shot at Asaoti railway station in Haryana. The original YouTube video also bears a trademark watermark, which matches the Facebook user who claimed it was his video.
The video posted by Piyush Goyal has been circulating on social media since January end. A Facebook user had posted the same video on his timeline on January 30, 2019 and can be seen below.
This is not the first time that Piyush Goyal has posted misleading information on social media. In the past, he’s been charged on multiple occasions for posting misleading images and information, trying to portray the development efforts of the Union government in a positive light.
This article was first published in AltNews. Read it here.
This article went live on February eleventh, two thousand nineteen, at thirty minutes past twelve at noon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
