An old video of Home Minister Amit Shah talking about ending Muslim reservation in Telangana has been doctored and shared with the false claim that it shows him promising to end reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) communities if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is voted back to power.
Shah had recently dismissed Congress's allegation that his party would end reservation if they crossed more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. The first phase and second phase of voting in the Lok Sabha 2024 election was on April 19, 2024 and April 26. There are total 7 phases of voting and the results would be declared on June 4, 2024.
In the viral video Shah can be heard saying, "If the Bharatiya Janata Party forms the government, we will end the unconstitutional reservation for SC, ST and OBC."
The video was posted by Jharkhand Congress with the caption that roughly translates to, "Amit Shah's election speech went viral in which he said that if the BJP government is formed again, OBC and SC/ST reservation will be abolished."
(In Hindi -अमित शाह का चुनावी भाषण तेजी से हुआ वायरल जिसमें, बोल रहे है कि अगर बीजेपी की सरकार अगर पुनः बनी तो OBC और SC/St आरक्षण खत्म कर दिया जाएगा l)
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BOOM also received the viral video on our WhatsApp helpline number (7700906588) with the same false claim.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video has been edited and in the original video Amit Shah is seen talking about ending Muslim reservation in Telangana if BJP is voted to power in the state.
Taking a hint from the logo of V6 news present in the viral video, we found the original video was posted on the YouTube channel of V6 News Telugu, a news channel based in Hyderabad, Telangana. The video was uploaded on April 23, 2023. Shah was delivering a speech in Chevalla in Rangareddy district of Telangana.
In this speech Shah attacks the then Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekhar Rao and promises to scrap Muslim reservation if BJP is voted to power.
From the 14.10 to 14.55 minutes timestamp in the video, Shah can be heard saying, "Friends, reservation for minorities was done in the two bedroom hall kitchen scheme, anti-constitutional Muslim reservation was done in education, and many other things were said. I am saying here that if the Bharatiya Janata Party government is formed, then we will abolish the unconstitutional Muslim reservation. This right belongs to the SC-ST and OBC of Telangana, they will get that right and we will end the Muslim reservation."
The part where Shah talks about Muslim reservation has been edited out in the viral video and the words he later says like "SC-ST and OBC" are cropped and inserted to make the false claim.
The Muslim community has been getting 4% reservations in education and employment under Other Backward Classes category in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh since 2007 when the two states were united. However, this quota is being implemented not by cutting into the existing quota of the OBCs, but under a separate category of OBCs, called BC-E. Under the Telangana government's Backward Classes Welfare scheme, Group E is defined as "Socially and Educationally Backward Classes among Muslims".
The Times of India had reported on November 20, 2023, that the BJP had declared that it would scrap the four percent reservation for Muslims in Telangana and allocate it to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
NDTV reported on April 29, 2024, that the Delhi Police on April 28, 2024, had registered a case over the doctored video of Shah.