A video of two men playing Dandiya Raas is being shared online, with the claim that one of them is former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. In the said video, a man bearing an uncanny resemblance to Desai can be seen wearing spectacles and dancing on Garba. The video is also shared with the additional claim that it was shot in 1962 at Bhadeli village in the Valsad district of Gujarat.
Opindia found that the video has been doing the rounds of the internet for quite sometime. Two Youtube channels by the name of ‘Dilip Shah’ and ‘Kishan S Prajapati’ had shared the same video 2 years ago.
The video has also been shared multiple times on the instant messaging app, Whatsapp.
The claim that one of the individuals seen in the video is Morarji Desai was also made by newspaper, Divya Bhaskar about 3 years ago.
The truth about the dance video of Morarji Desai
In 2019, Boom debunked the false claims that were being made in the video. It found that the men seen dancing in the video were Kunvarji Narshi and his brother Murji. On contacting his family, they confirmed that the video was shot 28 years ago and the man claimed to be Morarji Desai is deceased businessman Kunvarji Narshi. The deceased’s son reiterated that the video featured Kunvarji and his brother Murji. When Boom reached out to the grandson of Morarji Desai, Madhukeshwar Desai, he confirmed that it was not his grandfather in the video.