Old Speech of Acharya Pramod Krishnam On Reservations Shared As Recent

This speech was made by him in September 2023.

Fact-Check: This video was shared by few Congress leaders. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

A video of former Congress member Acharya Pramod Krishnam speaking against caste-based reservations is being shared on social media platforms.

What does he say?:

“Those leaders attack us, who are leaders of specific castes. They bully Brahmins. I want to raise that it is important to come up with a proposal in the next Maha Kumbha. Babasaheb Ambedkar has made this arrangement in the Constitution of India, so that there is no discrimination in the judgement of religion, caste and gender in India. Raise your hands if you support me. If you want to remove casteism from India’s democratic framework and politics, at the next ‘maha kumbh’ a proposal should be put out demanding that India should be freed from caste-based reservation."

Acharya Pramod Krishnan

Who shared it?: Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate shared this post. Chairman of Media and Publicity department for Congress Pawan Khera also shared the claim.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

This post recorded 426.3K views at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)

Is this true?: While Acharya Pramod did make this speech, it is not a recent one.

• The speech was made by him in September 2023 in Haridwar. Acharya Pramod was a part of the Congress party at the time. He was expelled from the party on 10 February for 'indiscipline' and 'anti-party statements.'

How did we find out?: At first, we noticed a logo of 'BGT news' on the video.

• Then, we ran a keyword search using "Acharya Pramod Krishnam Brahmins Caste BGT news."

• We came across a video on Facebook on BGT's page of a longer version of the Acharya's speech.

• 1:39 minutes onwards of the speech has gone viral and shared with the claim.

• However, the video is not recent. It was uploaded on 26 September 2023.

Here is a close up of the date. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

• Another keyword search led us to a video byte given to news agency ANI by Acharya Pramod Krishnam.

• He tells ANI that the video was a year old. He added that many Congress leaders were currently posting and making statements about it.

• Acharya went on to say that the truth was he met Prime Minister Modi on 1 February, but his old speech was being connected to the PM and used against him.

• He clarified that he was with the Congress party when he made on 24 September 2023.

• Acharya Pramod Krishnam was expelled from the Congress in February for 'indiscipline' and 'anti-party statements,' reported The Hindu on 11 February.

• He posted on his X page on 1 February that he invited the PM for a "Shri Kalki Dham," which was to be held on 19 February.

Conclusion: An old video of Acharya Pramod Krishnam is being shared as recent with a misleading claim.

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