‘Rape Dead Muslim Women’ Remark Falsely Linked to Yogi Adityanath
The remark was made by a Hindu Yuva Vahini leader who was sharing the stage with Yogi Adityanath.
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A video in which Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee can be heard stating that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said that they will rape dead Muslim women is being shared on social media.
While a remark was made on similar lines, it was made by a Hindu Yuva Vahini leader in a rally in UP’s Siddharth Nagar in 2007-08. It is noteworthy that Yogi can be seen sharing the stage with him.
CLAIM
In the nearly 7-minute video, Banerjee can be heard saying, “Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of a state, perhaps one of the biggest states in the country, said we will rape Muslim women after getting them out of their graves.”
The video is being shared with the claim: “BJP Bhakt Sushil Pandit got bashed by a youth.”
Several Facebook users have shared the video with the same claim.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We found that TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee had shared the video of his speech in February. He did accuse Yogi Adityanath of making a remark, ‘We will take Muslim women out of graves and rape them.”
Now let’s see if Yogi actually made this remark as claimed by Banerjee.
We found an article published in The Wire that mentioned that a Hindu Yuva Vahini leader, who shared the stage with Yogi Adityanath in a Hindu Chetna rally in Siddharth Nagar had “called for the rape of dead Muslim women dug out from graves.”
It is pertinent to note that Hindu Yuva Vahini has been founded by Yogi Adityanath.
In 2017, fact-checking website Alt News had published an article titled: ‘In a rally, Adityanath says Hindu-Muslim cultures can never co-exist, co-speaker asks for raping of Muslim women’.
The article mentions that the rally organised by Hindu Yuva Vahini took place in 2007-08. In one of the videos embedded in the article, a man can be heard saying, “Those who could not be of their nation, the history of Muslim community is so bad, who could not be of their mother and father, their friends, their sisters....cannot be of you, people of the Hindu community”
He then goes on to say, “Today it is needed to get their mothers and daughters out of their graves and rape their children. This is the need of the hour and only the Hindu Yuva Vahini can do it.”
While he was making the aforementioned statements, Yogi Adityanath could be seen on the stage, however, he did not make these statements.
Further, an NDTV report published in 2017 mentioned that Yogi Adityanath had sent a legal notice to National Conference spokesperson Junaid Azim Mattu for “'a habit of spreading hatred against the Bharatiya Janata Party' and 'spreading false stories against Mahant Yogi Adityanath by blaming him that he asked Hindus to rape dead Muslim women'.”
However, it must be noted that Yogi Adityanath, in the past, has made some provocative statements. For instance, while campaigning for the BJP in February for Delhi election, he threatened to use violence against anyone who tries to create trouble during Kawar Yatra. “Boli nahi, goli se samjhaya jaayega,” Adityanath said.
But the statement in question is being falsely attributed to him.
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