Ruchi Pathak, a spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, has stirred a controversy with her false statement about India’s Independence at a panel discussion.

Pathak, appearing on The Lallantop’s Uttar Pradesh election special show in Jhansi, said that India is not completely independent, and the erstwhile British Empire gave India its independence on a “99-year lease”.

As pointed out by other panellists and host Saurabh Dwivedi, this claim has not been made by politicians but is a popular conspiracy spread using social media platforms. The India Independence Act of 1947, the legal document that laid the terms of India’s Independence from the British Empire, also does not make any mention of a “lease” or of a tenure of “99” years.

Watch the full video of the debate here.