The Maharashtra government has ordered the introduction of Hindi as a compulsory third language from Classes 1 to 5 in Marathi and English-medium schools. This has triggered widespread opposition across the State and resulted in alleged violence against non-Marathi people.
In the above context, a video of Akbaruddin Owaisi, a leader of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party in Telangana, has gone viral on social media.
In the video, he can be heard saying, “Come to Andhra. Trying to be a big name Thackeray. Come. I came to you. Now, if you have the courage, come to me. If I take the responsibility of Maharashtra, then no one will have the courage to speak against Muslims.”
A social media user shared the video and wrote, “Akbaruddin Owaisi came to Maharashtra and openly challenged Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray from the stage: ‘I have come to Maharashtra to meet you; you come to me in Hyderabad. Where are Thackeray-Fakhre? If you have the courage, then raise your voice against Muslims!’
Even after this challenge by Akbaruddin Owaisi, at the public meeting of Vasis, Thackeray and MNS goons remained hiding in their holes; no one was seen! What happened? Where are MNS and Shiv Sainiks?... Why didn’t you respond? Or have you lost your senses? Die of shame, give up politics and sit at home.” (Translated from Hindi)
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. We found that the viral video is old and unrelated to the ongoing language row.
On a Google reverse image search, we found a similar video uploaded on YouTube on June 2, 2013. The video was shared with a caption that reads, “Akbaruddin Owaisi speech at Nanded.” The YouTube video contained text of links to a website, a YouTube channel and the Facebook page of 4TV. However, the last updates on the channel were 5 years ago.
seconds, we can hear Akbaruddin making the same statement as in the viral video.
We further found that Akbaruddin Owaisi also shared the video on his Facebook page on August 20, 2018. At around the 4:38-minute mark, we can hear Owaisi making the same statements.
We further found that a Facebook page, AIMIM-The True Voice of Indians, had also shared posts (links here and here) of Akbaruddin Owaisi giving the speech at Nanded. The caption suggested that the speech was held at Hyder Bagh Water Tank, at Nanded, Maharashtra, ahead of Nanded Municipal Elections. The posts were shared on October 13, 2012. He can be seen wearing the same colour clothes as in the viral video.
We found that Nanded-Waghala Municipal Corporation elections were held on October 14, 2012, and results declared October 15. Congress won 41 of 81 seats, followed by Shiv Sena (14), AIMIM (11), NCP (10) and BJP (2).
While we could not find the original source of the video, we could ascertain that the viral video is old and not related to the ongoing language row in the States.
