Rakesh Tikait didn’t just chant ‘Allahu Akbar’ in UP, he raised ‘Har Har Mahadev’ slogan too
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HoaXposed

Rakesh Tikait didn’t just chant ‘Allahu Akbar’ in UP, he raised ‘Har Har Mahadev’ slogan too

BJP leaders have questioned farmer leader Tikait for leading the Islamic chant at a mahapanchayat in UP, but the 20-second videos don’t present the full picture.

Tenzin Zompa    
File photo of BKU leader Rakesh Tikait | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

File photo of BKU leader Rakesh Tikait | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

New Delhi: Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait has been facing criticism from BJP leaders, after videos of him saying “Allahu Akbar” at a kisan mahapanchayat in Uttar Pradesh went viral on social media.

In the videos, which are less than 20 seconds long, Tikait can be heard saying: “If such a government comes into power, they will work to cause riots. Earlier when Tikait sahib (his father Mahendra Tikait) was there, we used to chant slogans… Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.” The slogans are then echoed by the crowd at the mahapanchayat, which was held in Muzaffarnagar Sunday.

Several prominent BJP leaders such as Sunil Yadav, vice-president of the party’s Delhi wing, spokesperson Ajay Sehrawat and BJP Mahila Morcha’s social media in-charge Priti Gandhi shared the video on Twitter.

“But seriously, what has ‘Allah hu (sic) Akbar’ got to do with #FarmLaws???,” said Gandhi’s Sunday tweet, which has garnered over 3,000 likes and more than 1,000 retweets.

 

Yadav, meanwhile, tweeted: “’Allahu Akbar’ slogans, instead of paying respect to farmers at #MuzaffarnagarPanchayat? What was the compulsion Tikait Sahab that instead of ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’, Akbar’s love is dripping from your mouth…. Appeal to the farmers of the country to stay away from the illusionists.”

Several others also shared the video on Twitter.

The clip has also been shared widely on Facebook.

Fact check

The viral videos, however, have been taken out of context — they are only small snippets of Tikait’s speech, in which he also raised the slogan, “Har Har Mahadev“.

The short clip that went viral is part of a 15-minute-long video that has been uploaded by the India Today Group channel Punjab Tak on its YouTube account.

In his speech, Tikait had said: “The slogans of Allah Hu Akbar and Har Har Mahadev have always been raised and will continue to be raised. We will not allow riots to happen here.”

Dainik Bhaskar also covered his address with the headline, “Kisan mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar: Rakesh Tikait says – slogans of Allah Hu Akbar and Har Har Mahadev will continue to be raised here.”

UP Tak, another digital channel of the India Today Group, published a report on the speech, tweeting, “When Tikait sahab was here, the slogans of Har-Har Mahadev and Allahu-Akbar used to be heard from this Earth, Rakesh Tikait made a statement in the Mahapanchayat, referring to the time of his father Mahendra Tikait.”

In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer

(Edited by Rachel John)

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