Congress manifesto for 2018 Telangana elections falsely linked to Karnataka polls

By: Rajini KG
May 12 2023

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Context

On May 7, few days before Karnataka went to polls, a Twitter user named Anup Rawat shared a video of a news channel broadcast, claiming it shows a "Glimpse of Congress Karnataka Manifesto." The caption says Congress has promised "all govt contracts to Muslim youths, 20 lac financial aid to poor Muslim students, residential schools for Muslims only, hospitals for minorities only," and "free electricity supply to Mosques and Churches." The video showed a special bulletin of the news channel Times Now which criticized the manifesto. 

However, this claim is misleading. The Times Now broadcast is from 2018, and the post misrepresents the broadcast and manifesto to be recent.

In Fact

Logically Facts found the original broadcast was aired by Times Now on November 26, 2018. The show was called 'India Upfront With Rahul Shivshankar,' and it discussed the Congress's manifesto for the 2018 Telangana state elections. 

None of the promises mentioned in the viral post were made in Karnataka Congress's manifesto for the 2023 assembly elections which released on May 2, 2023. This election's manifesto mentions that reservation quota will increase to 75 percent for minorities, SC, ST, and OBC. It also promises to bring back the 4 percent quota for Muslims. 

It has increased the fund for minorities welfare for communities like Muslims, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, and others, and promises to provide financial support to upgrade religious places of Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and others. It does not single out a particular community.

We also contacted the Telangana State Congress for clarification on the manifesto that Times Now mentions. Speaking to Logically Facts, Congress spokesperson Hari Prasad said, "This is an old manifesto from 2018 in Telangana. We have also taken it to the notice of Karnataka Congress people that it's circulating online as a recent Karnataka manifesto. Further, the claims in it are misleading. It has been shown as promises made to Muslims alone, but this was not true. They have been taken out of context."

Logically Facts then accessed the Telangana Congress manifesto from 2018 to check whether the statements made by Times Now are accurate. We found that the 2018 Telangana manifesto had mentioned several schemes for minorities including Christians, Dalits, SCs and STs, and not just for Muslims. 

Times Now's broadcast from 2018 claimed that the manifesto promised government contracts for all Muslim youth. However, the manifesto mentioned creating three corporations - Muslims minorities Finance Corporation, Christian Minorities Finance Corporation, and the Linguistic & Other Minorities Finance Corporation.

The claim that Rs. 20 lakh financial aid has been announced only for poor Muslim students is also false, as the manifesto states that Rs. 20 lakh assistance will be given to candidates from SC, ST communities in addition to Muslims for their education overseas.

The claim that residential schools will be opened only for Muslims is also misleading, as the manifesto states that residential schools will be established for girls, tribal people, minority students, visually challenged persons, Christians and just for Muslims. 

While the broadcast claims that the manifestoes promise minority-only hospitals, it says that government hospitals will be established in minority-concentrated areas and will not be limited to minorities only. 

Times Now also claims that free power will be given only to mosques and churches. However, the manifesto proposes free power to temples, mosques, churches and other places of worship, and not just mosques and churches. 

In 2018 too, The Quint had debunked this broadcast and reported that the Congress manifesto for the 2018 Telangana elections was broadcast with misleading narratives by Times Now.

The Verdict

An old news broadcast misinterpreting the 2018 manifesto released by the Congress for the 2018 Telangana Assembly has been shared again, falsely linking it to the 2023 Karnataka elections. Hence, we have marked this claim as misleading.