Claim
Rating
Explanation
Uddhav Thackeray has lost almost all claims to Shiv Sena, as the Election Commission had awarded the party and its symbol to Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena. Although Uddhav Bal Thackeray (UBT) faction had challenged it in the Supreme Court, hopes for Uddhav Thackeray are slim. Following the Election Commission’s decision, the supporters of the BJP and Eknath Shinde faction have upped their attack on Uddhav Thackeray by claiming that his political career is over.
Now, some social media users have been sharing a video of Uddhav with a claim that he had called the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Nitesh Rane, a BJP MLA from Maharashtra had shared the video with a text that describes “Biggest Traitor”. Similar posts can be seen here, here, here, here and here.
What’s the truth?
We searched for the full version of the video and were able to find it in ‘ABP MAJHA’s official YouTube page and it was uploaded on 19th February 2023. We were able to find the same video in Uddhav Thackeray’s official Facebook page as well.
In the 16th minute of the video published in ABP MAJHA, (36th minute in Facebook Live), Uddhav Thackeray can be heard saying about Aurangzeb as virally claimed. However, Uddhav was talking about Indian army soldier Aurangzeb, not the Mughal emperor with the same name. Indian army’s rifleman Aurangzeb was kidnapped and killed by terrorists in 2018.
While talking about the slain Indian Army soldier, Uddhav termed him Aurangzeb as his brother and he pointed out that he sacrificed his life for the nation. He questioned how Aurangzeb will not be his brother just because he is a Muslim. A small portion of this is edited out and spread with a misleading insinuation that Uddhav Thackeray had called the Mughal Emperor his brother. In a rather inspiring fashion, slain soldier Aurangzeb’s brothers have joined the army too.
Conclusion
In our search, we were able to find out that Uddhav Thackeray did not call the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb his brother. He was actually talking about the Indian soldier Aurangzeb who got killed by terrorists in Pulwama in 2018.
