Amidst the political crisis in Maharashtra, social media users are sharing a 30 seconds video of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in which he is praising Aurangzeb.
Eknath Shinde, minister in the Thackeray cabinet, and several other Shiv Sena legislators have rebelled against their chief minister. They have been demanding to break the alliance with NCP and Congress party and join hands with BJP. The rebelled MLAs under the leadership of Shinde have been camping in BJP ruled state of Assam. The fall of Maha Vikas Aghadi’s government can be assumed imminent.
On verifying the video, we found the claim misleading. Chief Minister is talking about an Indian soldier named Aurangzeb who was abducted and killed by militants in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir in June 2018.
The caption with the posts reads: “बाल केशव ठाकरे (बाला साहेब ठाकरे ) अपनी राजनीति चमकाने के चक्कर में अपना घर देखना भूल गए, इसलिए उनकी औलाद उद्धव ठाकरे आतंकवादी बलात्कारी लुटेरे औरंगजेब को शहीद बता रहा है #शिवसेना_नहीं_शवसेना”
(Translation: Bal Keshav Thackeray (Bala Saheb Thackeray) forgot to see his house in the pursuit of polishing his politics, that’s why his son Uddhav Thackeray is calling the terrorist, rapist, and robber Aurangzeb a martyr.)
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
An archived version of similar posts can be viewed (here) (here) and (here).
FactO Check:
Since the video carries the logo of Marathi TV9 in the right top corner, we searched for the video and found 2:19 minutes uploaded on YouTube on 8 June 2022. While criticising the BJP’s idea of Hindutva, Thackeray is heard talking about the Indian soldier, Aurangzeb, in Marathi from 1:05 timestamp. However, the viral video is clipped at 1:47 timestamp to play it out of context.
