“We were very confident that we can never come to power. So our people suggested us just to make tall promises. Now people remind us of our promises…Now we just laugh and move on.” says Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in 34-second clip which has gone viral on social media. Gadkari was on a Colors Marathi reality show, Assal Pavhane, Irsal Namune alongside Bollywood actor Nana Patekar as a guest on October 4. The Congress party was quick to take a jibe at Gadkari, tweeting this clip with a message that the Modi Government was built on ‘jumlas’ and fake promises. Good to see Union Minister @nitin_gadkari concurring with our view that the Modi Govt was built on jumlas and fake promises. pic.twitter.com/DewDbnd16w — Congress (@INCIndia) October 8, 2018 Next day, AICC President Rahul Gandhi had also tweeted the same video. Several media organizations like National Herald, The Week and Times of India have reported on the video. On October 10, Nitin Gadkari conducted a press conference to clarify that the media reports have misquoted him and jibed Gandhi, wondering if he understood Marathi. This is false, I did not say anything on Modi ji or 15 lakhs etc. The program was in Marathi and I wonder since when has Rahul ji starting understanding Marathi?: Nitin Gadkari,Union Minister on reports that he said BJP over promised in 2014 elections pic.twitter.com/mqu9ELsiX7 — ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 #WATCH: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari clarifies on his earlier reported statement that ‘BJP overpromised in 2014 elections’. pic.twitter.com/WCDkYiqSZf — ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018 On the basis of the claims made by Gadkari in the press conferenece, we tried searching for the complete video on the internet. Alt News found a promotional video of 69 seconds of the show featuring Nana Patekar and Gadkari posted on the official Facebook page of Colors Marathi on September 30, 2018. Although this is not the complete video, we are posting it for reference as it brings out the context in which the statement was made. Assal Pahune Irsal Namune | Nitin Gadkari | Nana Patekar | Colors Marathi कसे घ्यावे लागतात राजकारणात निर्णय… काय असू शकतात निर्णय चुकण्याचे परिणाम? ऐका आपल्या अस्सल पाहुण्यांकडून. पाहा #AssalPahuneIrsalNamune गुरू-शुक्र. रात्री 9.30 वा. #ColorsMarathi वर. Posted by Colors Marathi on Saturday, 29 September 2018 We accessed the full video uploaded on Voot, a digital platform of Viacom 18 network, which is hyperlinked here. Alt News has translated the relevant portion of the video available on Voot. The translation is as follows (from 39:30 in the video). Nitin Gadkari: Now, in politics, keep this in mind — politics is a game of compulsions, limitations and contradictions. Nana Patekar: You’re saying this now, but during elections, you had said something different Nitin Gadkari: — had said something different…[Both laugh.] Nitin Gadkari: Look, I — I shouldn’t be saying this now — but I had spoken about two or three things — Devendra [Fadnavis] was President then and Munde was there, Gopinath Rao. I had said to them, ‘Don’t do the toll [tax] announcement.’ […] I’ll tell you what our problem was. We all had a firm belief, we were confident that we would never in all our lives come to power in the state. We were completely convinced of this in our minds. So our people said, ‘Speak, say [anything], what’s the harm, when are you going to be held responsible for it?’ [Laughingly] And now we have come to power. […] Nana Patekar: Gadkari, what [are you saying]?[Both laugh.] Nitin Gadkari: That’s the truth. Now you know what Gadkari said on which date, what Fadnavis said. So you ask us, ‘You had said this, what next?’ That’s how it is. […] In politics, I’m a bit of an exception. I don’t lie, I don’t give false assurances. People don’t believe the consequences I sometimes bear for this. I tell people, ‘I won’t do this, it cannot be done, so don’t come to me.’ Some people feel, ‘Well, at least you tell us this upfront and save us the trouble of running back and forth.’ They’re happy. But sometimes, I do do things. I look into matters, I enquire, I laugh. Five or ten people go away speaking ill of me. So you… in the extremely poor state of our country’s politics, people understand that you can’t have such [ideal] politics. From the translation, it is evident that Nitin Gadkari’s statement was about the Maharashtra state elections which had also taken place in 2014. He refers to “Toll” (tax), Devendra Fadnavis (then BJP state President) and the late Gopinath Munde. Hence, the claim made by the Congress party that the Union Minister was referring to promises made by the BJP in run-up to the 2014 general elections is incorrect.