New Delhi: A video of Avadh Ojha, a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has gone viral on X with a claim that he called fellow party leader and Delhi’s former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia a “coward”.
In the viral video, the interviewer questions Ojha about Sisodia not contesting from the Patparganj Assembly constituency—a seat he has won and represented in the last three polls in Delhi—for the upcoming Delhi elections scheduled to be held on 5 February. Ojha seemingly responds with a verse in Hindi which loosely translates to, “Those who have not seen war in their lives are unfortunate because they have broken their vows or fled from battle.”
Ojha is the party’s current candidate from the Patparganj seat.
The video was shared by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT-cell head Amit Malviya, party’s National Secretary (BJP Youth) Tajinder Bagga, and party’s State General Secretary Vaishali Poddar.
However, we found that the viral clip has been altered by adding Ojha’s reply to an unrelated question, making it appear that he was responding to the question about Sisodia not contesting from the Patparganj seat. At no point in this interview does Ojha imply Sisodia is a “coward”.
What did we find?
In the viral video, we noticed that the journalist was holding the microphone of news channel NDTV. On looking for the interview using reverse search, we found that NDTV journalist Rajeev Ranjan had interviewed Ojha (archived here) on 8 January, 2025.
Ranjan’s question in the viral clip can be heard at the 1:46 second mark in the NDTV video, where he highlighted that Patparganj is an important seat from where Sisodia has won thrice and served as the deputy CM. He then goes on to question Ojha about Sisodia stepping away this time.
To this Ojha responds, “He has not stepped away, he has given it to me. He was associated with education and I also wanted to work in the field of education so I requested him to give me this seat.”
What about the answer in the viral clip?
The answer in the viral clip can be heard at the 51-second mark, where Ranjan introduced Ojha and said that the AAP leader just entered politics and is now contesting elections. Ojha responded to this question with a verse in Hindi, “Those who have not seen war in their lives are unfortunate because they have broken their vows or fled from battle”, before talking about his work in the field of education.
At no point in the interview did Ojha make any negative remarks about Sisodia.
The verdict
The viral clip of AAP leader Avadh Ojha calling AAP leader and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia a “coward” has been altered. Ojha’s response to an unrelated question was added to the viral video to make it appear like he was talking about Sisodia not contesting from the Patparganj seat.
This story was originally published by Logically Facts as part of the Shakti Collective. Apart from the headline, excerpt and introduction, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.
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