Who is Ram Gupta — the man in viral video from AAP stir

As the police officer moved away, Gupta could be saying “Kejriwal zindabad” while admitting to the mediaperson that he had lied to evade detention, and was one of the protesters.

On Saturday, Gupta told The Sunday Express that he was aware that he was suddenly popular on social media. “I have seen the posts on X as well as the memes. I know my video is being shared on WhatsApp. And I admit I lied, but I did so only because I was there to protest. I did not want to get detained and be dropped off in the jungles in Bawana,” he said.

Every time he joins an AAP protest, Gupta said, he gets detained. Gupta, who has been part of many AAP protests in the past decade, several times got dropped somewhere far off in the city; he had to make his long way back home on his own. “In Bawana, you cannot even find an auto. If the government can play this game in a bid to stifle peaceful protests and democracy, why should we not have a game plan?” he asked.

Gupta said he was a Hindi-language journalist till 2013, while being associated with the anti-corruption movement spearheaded by activist Anna Hazare, and Kejriwal. “I quit journalism in 2013 after realising there was only a very little space in TV media for adverse reporting on the current BJP government. Slowly, freedom of expression vanished. This is what the BJP wants…,” said Gupta, the father of two boys, adding that at a time when peaceful protests are stopped and freedom of expression being clamped down upon, “such a lie is not wrong”. “We have to use all tactics to make sure our voice is heard. Yes, I told a lie, but even shastras say a lie that does not hurt… is not wrong.”