Old Prega News Ad Is Going Viral As Congress Party's New Ad Campaign For The Mahalakshmi Scheme.

Recently a video went viral on social media claiming to be an ad for the Mahalakshmi scheme announced by the Congress party. The video shows a mother trying to console her crying baby and a cleaning staff advising her how to make the baby stop crying. Then another woman working on a laptop taunts the cleaning staff for her "double duty". After this Rahul Gandhi's speech on the Mahalakshmi scheme can be heard and footage of Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi can be seen too.

Sharing the video on Facebook user wrote, "This is Congress's new ad campaign on Mahalakshmi scheme. Congress will give 1 lakh Rs annually in bank account of women once INDIA comes to power".

Facebook Link | Archived Link.

The same video can be seen here too. Archived Link.

However, as we investigated, we came to know that the ad has nothing to do with the Mahalakshmi scheme. This is an old ad for Prega News. Here's the fact check.

Fact Check

We started our investigation by taking some screenshots of the viral video and conducting a reverse image search. As a result, we came across an article published on the "Youth Ki Awaaz" website on 9 March 2022. The headline of the article read, "Prega News Missed The Mark With Its Latest “Empowering” Ad".

In the article, the writer criticises the Prega News ad. It read, "Happy Women’s Day! Well, while this day calls for a celebration of womanhood, Prega News grabbed the opportunity to advertise its pregnancy kit. Smart move? No! I’ll tell you why."

In the article, a YouTube video has been embedded. The caption of the video reads, "Celebrate Women's Day 2022 With Prega News | #SheCanCarryBoth | Sayantani Ghosh".

The video was uploaded by the official YouTube channel of Prega News. From the timestamp 0:40 to 1:13 of the video, the viral clip can be seen. The description of the video reads, "Being a mom is extremely rewarding, but does that ever take a toll on your ambitions and dreams? This Women's Day with Prega News, it's time to break free from the nay-sayers of society and bring confidence to women that #SheCanCarryBoth!"

We found the same video on the Facebook page of Prega News. The video was uploaded on 22 February 2022.

Facebook Link | Archived Link.

Ok further search we found another article criticising the Prega News ad on the Youth Ki Awaaz website.

Please read here.

What is the Mahalakshmi scheme?

According to the Congress party's manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Nyay Patra, Congress resolves to launch a Mahalakshmi scheme to provide ₹ 1 lakh per year to every poor Indian family as an unconditional cash transfer. The poor will be identified among the families at the bottom of the income pyramid. The amount will be directly transferred to the bank account of the oldest woman of the household. Absent a woman, it will be transferred to the account of the oldest member of the family. The scheme will be rolled out in stages and reviewed every year to assess the number of beneficiary families and its impact on alleviating poverty.

Conclusion

From our investigation, we can say that the claim made with the viral video is false. The video is an old ad for Prega News and this has nothing to do with the Mahalakshmi scheme announced by the Congress party.