Fact check.
Fact originally verified by BOOM: A video is viral on social media between the narrator’s ‘Hindu Ekta Padyatra’ and Bageshwar Dham chief Dhirendra Shastri. While sharing this video, users claim that during Dhirendra Shastri’s padyatra, slogans were raised along with the image of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb.
The fact check found that the claim made with the viral video is false. This video is from an election rally in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. Javed Qureshi’s supporters, contesting from Aurangabad Central, raised slogans during the election tour.
Storyteller Dhirendra Shastri is on ‘Hindu Ekta Padyatra’ since November 21. This march will continue until November 29. During this, it will cover a distance of 160 km from Bageshwar Dham to Orchha in Madhya Pradesh.
While sharing the viral video on the social media platform. The Hindus showed great peace. You yourself watch the video to see how much instigation was done to cause riots, but the Hindus continued to march silently. (post archive link)
This video is also viral on social media platform Facebook with the same claim. (post archive link)
Fact check.
Fact check: Viral video taken during Maharashtra elections
When we did a reverse Google image search of its different keyframes to investigate the viral video, we found this video uploaded on November 18, 2024 on a Facebook account named Javed Qureshi.
Its headline was: ‘Aurangabad Central’s Vanchit candidate went toe-to-toe with Pradeep Jaiswal at Javed Qureshi rally. He showed a photo of Aurangzeb (right) and raised slogans of Zindabad. This confirmed that this video was available on the internet even before the start of Dhirendra Shastri’s padyatra.
After this, when we watched this video carefully, on one side some people were raising slogans with the photographs of Tipu Sultan and Aurangzeb, while on the other side, people standing were raising slogans of ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj ki Jai’.
Apart from this, some people are holding posters saying ‘Vote for Javed Qureshi’ in their hands. Also, the vehicles plying on the other side have flags of Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and BJP.
Fact check.
When we searched for keywords related to this on Google, we found a video related to this on a YouTube channel called Aurangabad Updates. The title of this video was: ‘Aurangabad Central: Workers arrived at Javed Qureshi’s bike rally carrying Aurangzeb’s photo and raised Zindabad slogans.’ Also in this video you can see posters with photographs of Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan in the hands of people.
In the recently concluded Maharashtra Assembly elections, Pradeep Shivnarayan Jaiswal of Shiv Sena (Shinde) won from Aurangabad (Central) by over 8,000 votes. While Mohammad Javed Qureshi, candidate of Prakash Ambedkar’s party Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, came fourth.
Confirmed MLA
Newly elected Aurangabad (Central) MLA Pradeep Shivnarayan Jaiswal was contacted to confirm the video. He said, “This video is from one of our road shows in Aurangabad. On one side of the road are my followers, while on the other side are Javed Qureshi’s supporters.”
He further said, “He is a supporter of Javed and is holding the poster of Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan. We are people who believe in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. We were raising slogans of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj ki Jai and they were raising slogans of Aurangzeb Zindabad. There was no untoward incident there. “We left there peacefully.” Pradeep Shivnarayan Jaiswal also confirmed that no complaint was made to the police in this matter.
What was stated: Muslims raised slogans of ‘Aurangzeb Zindabad’ and ‘Aurangzeb tera baap’ during Dhirendra Shastri’s march.
Who stated: social media users
What was found actually verifies: Lie
(Disclaimer: This fact check was originally done by BOOM, republished by India TV with the help of Shakti Collective)
