Fact Check: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah Did Not Insult Footballers, Old Video of BJP Regime Viral With False Claim
The incident of the Chief Minister of Karnataka making the Santosh Trophy-winning football team wait on the footpath outside his residence happened during the BJP government’s tenure, when Basavaraj Bommai was the CM; not during the newly formed Congress government’s regime. Vishvas News found the viral claim linking it to CM Siddaramaiah to be false.
- By Vishvas News
- Updated: June 14, 2023
New Delhi Vishvas News – A viral post on social media claims the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, made the Santosh Trophy-winning state football team wait on the footpath outside his residence. The post includes a video showing a man questioning why the team was made to wait for hours to meet the Chief Minister. The caption suggests that this incident occurred recently under the new Siddaramaiah-led Congress regime. Vishvas News investigated the matter and found the claim to be false. The incident actually took place in March 2023 when the BJP, not the Congress, governed the state, and Basavaraj Bommai was the CM.
What’s in the viral post:
Facebook user ‘Viraj Revadekar’ shared the viral video on June 12 with the caption (translated from Hindi): “Karnataka State Football Team recently won the Santosh Trophy in Saudi Arabia, and the Chief Minister of Karnataka behaved like this with these players. Congressmen have plenty of time for terrorists like Yasin Malik, Afzal Guru. Courts are opened at midnight to defend terrorists.”
View the archived link of the post here.
Investigation:
To verify the claim, Vishvas News did a keyword search and found that the Karnataka football team won the Santosh Trophy on March 4, 2023, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
News reports from portals such as IBTimes and Asianetnews on March 18, 2023, confirmed that the then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had made the team wait on the footpath.
It is important to note that the Karnataka assembly election results were announced on May 13, and Siddaramaiah was sworn in as CM on May 22. The incident, thus, took place before Siddaramaiah assumed office.
We contacted Karnataka-based sports journalist Santosh Naik regarding this. He said, “This incident happened when Basavaraj Bommai was the Chief Minister of Karnataka. Nothing like this has happened in the Siddaramaiah regime so far. Bommai had ignored the Santosh Trophy champions and made them wait on the footpath, which earned him a lot of condemnation from sports fans.”
Upon scanning the profile of ‘Viraj Revdekar’, the user who shared the viral post, we found that he has hidden most of his personal information.
Conclusion: The incident of the Chief Minister of Karnataka making the Santosh Trophy-winning football team wait on the footpath outside his residence happened during the BJP government’s tenure, when Basavaraj Bommai was the CM; not during the newly formed Congress government’s regime. Vishvas News found the viral claim linking it to CM Siddaramaiah to be false.