This video is from a program held in Jaipur to commemorate Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary in 2023 October. Prayers from all religions were offered there.
A video of a meeting is going viral on social media with the claim that it shows Kalma (Islamic prayer) being recited during the inauguration of the Congress party office in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The footage shows several people gathered together and you can hear the Quranic Kalma being recited during the meeting. It is being claimed that the Congress party has opened a new office in Jaipur and the Kalma is being recited to mark its inauguration. The users who share the video linking it to communalism and spreading it virally.
The caption of the post states, “At the inauguration of the Congress party’s new office in Jaipur, neither the Sundarkand nor a Ganesh puja was performed; instead, Kalma was recited. Notably, Congress’s Hindu workers participated actively in the event, and no one raised any objection”.
Let’s check the truth
The same video is going viral on Facebook as well.
Fact Check-
Upon carefully watching the video, we noticed that “Heena Khan was live” was visible in the midst of the video. The viral video looked to be a screen recording of a Facebook live video by a user ‘Heena Khan’.
Keeping this in mind, we searched for a Facebook account named Heena Khan and found it. The information provided revealed that Heena Khan is the General Secretary of the Jaipur City District Committee. After searching her account, we found a post shared on 31 October, 2023, with the caption, “Tribute to former Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary.” (Translated from Hindi) The images shared there appeared to be similar to the viral video. You can see them below.
A comparison of the screenshots from the Facebook images and the viral video can be seen below, which indicates that they are of the same event.
Using these hints, we conducted further searches and found a video of a tribute meeting for Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary broadcasted on DD News on 31October 2023. Congress leader Heena Khan can be seen in it.
We also found a post made by Sangeeta Beniwal, Congress party leader and Former Chairperson of the Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, on the same day. The post contains a video from the same meeting, the song ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’ can be heard in the background. Heena Khan can also be seen in this video.
We contacted Sangeeta Beniwal and she told us, ” The viral video is being shared incompletely. Prayers from all religions were offered at the event. Hindu hymns were sung, Sikhs offered their prayers, so did Christians, and Muslims recited the Kalma from the Quran. I was present at the gathering myself.”
Moving forward, we found a tweet from Swarnim Chaturvedi, General Secretary of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee, retweeted the video on 2 August, 2024, and dismissed the claim with the clarification that the video shows an interfaith prayer gathering held at the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress headquarters in Jaipur. The tweet states, “A video clip of the interfaith prayer gathering held at the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress headquarters in Jaipur, featuring recitations from bhajans, Gurbani, the Bible, and the Quran, is being used to spread malicious propaganda against the Congress party, claiming that while the Congress’s new office in Jaipur is yet to be built. The Congress party will soon take legal action”.
Based on these evidences, we can say that the viral video is not recent and it shows an interfaith prayer meeting held in remembrance of the Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the Congress Party headquarters, Jaipur, on 31 October, 2023.
Conclusion-
Fact Crescendo found that the claim made along with the viral video to be False. This video is from an all-religion gathering held in Jaipur on Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary. Prayers from all religions were offered to pay tribute to Indira Gandhi.
Title:Kalma recited during the Congress party office inauguration in Jaipur- Know the truth
Fact Check By: Usha ManojResult: False
