Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in India, a video of an individual, identified as Asif Zardari from Pakistan, voicing his support for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing the rounds on social media. The video features text overlaid in Hindi, which reads, “This is a Muslim from Pakistan, Pakistani Asif Zardari,” along with an emoji of the Pakistani flag.
The over-one-minute-long video depicts a skullcap-clad man seated in a car. He goes on to address Indian Muslims, introducing himself as Asif Zardari from Pakistan. He then discusses the economic challenges and hardships being faced by Pakistanis amid the holy month of Ramazan, juxtaposing them with the people in India.
He encourages Indian Muslims to endorse the Modi government and expresses a wish for India to attack and take control of Pakistan. The video ends with the use of profanity.
Pakistan has been grappling with a deep-seated economic crisis, leading to financial hardships, unemployment, and surge in prices of essential commodities such as food and oil.
On X (formerly Twitter), this video has been circulated alongside captions such as, “A Pakistani Muslim’s message to Indian Muslims,” and “I strongly condemn Pakistani Muslims for mocking Bharatiya Muslims and questioning their loyalty towards Bharat Mata.”
One such post featuring the viral video had accumulated over 19,000 views. Archived versions of several posts can be found here, here, here, here, and here.
Hindi news channel India TV also used the viral video in a live video available on their official, verified YouTube channel. The video, titled in Hindi, roughly translates to: “PM Modi On Pakistan: New planning by Prime Minister Modi has caused a commotion in Pakistan… only Modi, Modi everywhere”. The video was used as a real testimonial from a person in Pakistan, railing against the country’s economic crisis. An archive can be seen here.
However, we found that the social media page that posted the video claims to be of an artist based in Agra, Uttar Pradesh.
Who is the person in the video?
In a viral iteration of the video with a Malayalam caption, we saw that the name ‘dhirendra_raghav_79’ was visible.
A search on Instagram with that username led us to a video posted on the Instagram page of ‘Dhirendra Raghav’ on 23 March. We also found that the user had posted the same video on both Facebook and Instagram (archived here and here). The posts accompanying Hindi caption translates to “There is no one like Prime Minister Modi… 🇮🇳❤️”
Raghav’s Instagram bio identifies him as an artist and his profile displays a variety of similar videos.
Upon reviewing the content of his page, we noticed that most of the videos feature him in different outfits, playing different characters, and sometimes sitting in a car, as seen in the viral video. In many of his videos, he adopts names, such as Saddam Hussein and Bhavana.
He frequently creates reels featuring songs. In some of his reels, he discusses current events such as the death of jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari. Furthermore, in one of his videos, he calls for a boycott of the Congress Party. He has also created reels where he portrays Hindu and Muslim characters.
Raghav’s Facebook page also identified him as a video creator and a ‘digital creator’. His profile indicates that he resides in Agra.
We checked some of Raghav’s videos to confirm his location. One of the reels (archive here) on his Facebook page showed him dancing on a road to a popular Bollywood song. A look at some of the storefronts in the background showed us a salon called Jyoti Makeover, adjacent to a shop called Agrawal Dairy. Using these two clues, we were able to place the area where the video was shot to Pushpanjali Road in Agra.
Clearly, this video does not show a Pakistani Muslim’s message to Indian Muslims but is an act by an Agra-based man who regularly makes such videos based on different characters.
The verdict
The viral video, initially posted by an artist from Agra, Uttar Pradesh, has been wrongly spread as showing a Pakistani urging Indians to support Modi. The individual is from India, and similar videos can be found on his page. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.
This story was originally published by Logically Facts, as part of the Shakti Collective. Except for the headline, excerpt and introduction para, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.