Fact Check: Former Prime Minister Harish Rawat’s old video goes viral with misleading claims

New Delhi (Vishvas News). A video of Uttarakhand’s former chief minister Harish Rawat at a dargah is going viral on social media. Some users falsely claim that he converted to Islam and recently visited the dargah.

Vishvas News’ investigation found that this claim was misleading. The video is from 2021 when Harish Rawat visited Piran Kaliyar and offered a ‘chadar’ at the Sabir Pak Dargah and prayed for the prosperity of the state. This old video is shared with a false claim and has no connection with the current scenario.

What’s in the viral post?

On October 17, 2024, Facebook user Kamlesh Rai shared the video with the caption: “All countrymen are informed that senior Congress leader, who is a Hindu and has also served as the Chief Minister of the state of Uttarakhand, has embraced Islam today.” You may not believe it, so I’ll show you this personally. To gain power, political leaders change their religion like chameleons. Some people may continue to flatter such leaders just for their benefit. Look, Harish Rawat ji has accepted Islam. Allah hu Akbar! Drown yourself, die in a handful of water; The buffalo went into the water.”

You can find the archive link of the viral post here.

Investigation

To verify the authenticity of the viral video, we conducted a Google search using relevant keywords. We found a related message on the ETV Bharat website published on November 28, 2021. According to the report, former chief minister Harish Rawat visited Piran Kaliyar where he offered a chadar at the Sabir Pak Dargah and prayed for the prosperity of the state. During his visit, he also prayed for victory in the 2022 general elections.

During our investigation, we found a report about the viral video on the official Facebook page of News18 Uttarakhand. The report published on November 28, 2021 said, “Former CM Harish Rawat held a chadar at the Sabir Pak shrine in Piran Kaliyar and prayed for peace,” saying that the Congress will win the assembly elections by a huge margin.

We found that several Facebook users had shared images related to the viral video on November 28, 2021.

To provide further clarity, we reached out to Congressman Rajpal Bisht, who refuted the viral claim and confirmed that the video was old.

Lastly, we checked the profile of the user who shared the video. The user has over 1000 Facebook followers and identifies himself as a resident of Jaunpur.

Diploma:

Vishvas News’ investigation found that the viral claim was misleading. The video is from 2021 when Harish Rawat visited Piran Kaliyar and offered a chadar at Sabir Pak Dargah and prayed for the prosperity of the state. The same video is now being shared with a false claim misrepresenting it as newsworthy. The video is unrelated to current events.

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