No, a journalist was not beaten up at BJP's press conference in Uttar Pradesh

By: Soham Shah
April 18 2024

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An X post claiming the video shows a journalist being beaten up at a BJP press conference. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the claim?

A video of two people fighting with a hoarding of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the background is being shared on social media with a claim that a journalist was beaten up at a press conference held by the party in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha. 

Multiple posts in Hindi shared on X (formerly Twitter) claimed that the journalist was beaten as he deviated from the list of permitted questions provided by the party office. Archives of such posts can be found here and here. 

X post claiming the video shows a journalist being beaten up at a BJP press conference. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, we found that the video shows a scuffle between two BJP leaders, Ramesh Kalal and Krishna Kumar. No journalist was beaten up at the press conference.

What is the truth?

Using a keyword search, we found a report by the Hindi-language newspaper Hindustan, published on April 15, 2024, that carried the same video. The report described that a scuffle broke out between BJP district media in-charge Ramesh Kalal and BJP district Vice-President Krishna Kumar at a press conference organized by BJP leader and Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Brijesh Singh on April 15 in Amroha. A video of the scuffle was also shared on X (archive here) was also shared by the outlet.

We also found a report published by Amar Ujala about the incident on the same date. 

None of these reports said anything about a journalist being beaten up at the press conference. The Amar Ujala report says that Singh later addressed the fight in the press conference, saying that BJP is a big family and such small fights keep happening, acknowleding that a fight broke out between the two leaders.

Logically Facts also spoke to BS Arya, a journalist with the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, who was present at the press conference. He confirmed that a fight broke out between the two BJP leaders, as seen in the video, and no journalist was beaten up at the event.

The verdict

We have marked the claim as false as multiple news reports and a journalist present at the press conference confirmed that the fight was between two BJP leaders and did not involve a journalist.