New Delhi: BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra Friday tweeted a video of former Congress MLA Naseem Khan allegedly chanting “Pakistan Zindabad” and asked his followers to fact-check it.
क्या कोई मेरे लिए इस विडीओ की सत्यता की जाँच कर सकता है?
Social Media में लोगों का कहना है यह व्यक्ति कांग्रेस का नेता नसीम खान है जो पाकिस्तान ज़िंदाबाद के नारे लगा रहा है और मोदी जी को challenge कर रहा है ..
Please run a fact check on this friends ..do let me know .. pic.twitter.com/7SyM2dkE4V
— Sambit Patra (@sambitswaraj) February 7, 2020
The post received over 6,000 retweets and 15,000 likes.
In the video, Khan can be heard saying, “Pakistan Zindabad, agar himmat hai Modiji ke andar, aur agar Rajnath ne apni maa ka dood piya hai, toh unke khilaf deshdrohi ka mukadma darz kiya jaaye.” (Long live Pakistan! If Modi has the strength and if Rajnath Singh has had his mother’s milk, then there should be a sedition case slapped against them).
Khan is a four-time Congress MP from the Chandivali constituency in Maharashtra. He, however, lost the 2019 assembly elections to the Shiv Sena’s Dilip Lande.
In light of the tweet, Khan has filed a complaint with the Saki Naka police station in Mumbai.
Fact-check
The video in question is from 2016, in which Khan is referring to Sri Sri Ravishankar’s statements on India-Pakistan unity at a mushaira (poetry) event.
In 2016, the Art of Living founder had said, “Jai Hind and Pakistan Zindabad” should go together for “peace and development” between India and Pakistan. This was during a three-day World Culture Festival at the Yamuna floodplains.
The original video witnesses Khan speaking about PM Modi and Ravi Shankar’s statements.
Moreover, in the original video Khan questions, “Mein poochna chahta hoon Modiji se ki aaj Yamuna ke kinaare Dilli mein Sri Sri Ravishankar ne Pakistan Zindabad (ke naare) lagwaye voh (bhi) Rajnath Singh ki maujoodgi mein, unn par deshdrohi ka mukadama chalna chahiye. (I want to ask Modiji that by the banks of the Yamuna in Delhi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar raised the slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, that too in the presence of Rajnath Singh. Will they be prosecuted for sedition?).”
This video had also surfaced in October 2019, targeting Khan.
After filing the complaint, Khan said, “Patra has shared an old video on his official Twitter account without verifying it’s veracity in a bid to defame me and the Congress party.
“This video was fabricated by a RSS worker during the Vidhan Sabha elections. Even at that time a complaint was filed against the fake video with the police,” he added. “And it was found that the person had edited the original video to make this fake video. Despite all this, the vicious BJP is spreading the fake video again.”
Also read: Sambit Patra got it wrong. AAP candidate Amanatullah Khan didn’t say ‘sharia’
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer