Jharkhand Assembly Elections 2024 | CM Soren's 2021 announcement of free shrouds falsely linked to ongoing polls

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing Jharkhand Assembly polls, a video of Chief Minister Hemant Soren has been widely shared on social media in which he promised free shrouds ('kafans') for everyone in the state.

The users shared the video, claiming it to be a recent one, linking it to the assembly elections.

PTI Fact Check Desk’s investigation found the posts to be misleading since the video dates back to 2021, when the Jharkhand government announced free shrouds in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The three-year-old video is being shared as recent, falsely linking it to the assembly polls.

A user on social media platform 'X' (formerly Twitter) wrote, "Hemant Soren's government in Jharkhand is unable to provide employment to the youth, but is definitely talking about giving free shrouds. The condition is that you have to die to get the shroud. This is not just the condition of Jharkhand, but the whole country."

This post has been viewed more than 5,000 times so far and hundreds of users are sharing it believing it to be a recent clip.

To know the truth of the viral claim, the Desk conducted a Google search with the help of related keywords. We found several old media reports related to the announcement of free shrouds by Soren in May 2021 in wake of the huge number of deaths during the pandemic.

During the investigation, we also found Soren's statement on the YouTube channel of Zee News. The report said that the state government had announced to provide free shrouds for the last rites of people, who died due to coronavirus.

Meanwhile, a report published by Navbharat Times on May 25, 2021 stated that Soren had announced free shrouds to people of the state to overcome the problems faced by them due to the closure of cloth shops during the Health Safety Week.

Our investigation so far makes it clear that Soren's 'free shroud' scheme has nothing to do with the ongoing assembly elections. This viral video is three years old and is being shown as recent in a false context.

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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