A viral graphic claiming former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray demanded the classical language status for Urdu, is fake.
On October 3, 2024, the Union Cabinet approved classical language status for five new languages - Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese, and Bengali—bringing the total number of recognised classical languages to eleven. Urdu is currently not on this list.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut welcomed the Centre’s decision on October 4, 2024, to grant classical language status to Marathi, emphasising that it was the result of collective efforts.
The demand to recognise Marathi as a classical language was a long pending one and part of a credit fight between the Maharashtra's political parties in the lead up to the upcoming elections in the state.
Fake ABP Majha graphic quoting Uddhav Thackery
The graphic designed to look like a social media post by Marathi channel ABP Majha, includes Thackeray's photo with text in Marathi translating to, "It is our demand that Urdu language be given the status of classical language just like Marathi language got the status of classical language. ~ Uddhav Thackeray".
(In Marathi - मराठी भाषेला अभिजात भाषेचा दर्जा मिळाला तसाच उर्दू भाषेलाही अभिजात भाषेचा दर्जा देण्यात यावा, हि आमची मागणी आहे - उद्धव ठाकरे)
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral graphic is fake. Thackeray, who is the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief never made such a demand and ABP Majha has not posted such a graphic.
We first ran a search on ABP Majha's social media accounts for the viral posts, and did not find results matching it.
The search led us to another graphic using the same format, colours and a photo of Uddhav Thackeray posted by ABP Majha in May 2024.
This graphic had different text than the viral claim. This shows that the viral graphic is morphed using the format of ABP Majha's social media posts.
The original graphic from May 18, 2024 with a different quote is from the below tweet
The comparison between the viral fake and original graphic can be seen below:
Uddhav Thackeray Did Not Demand classical language status For Urdu
We did not find any record of a public statement made by Uddhav Thackeray in rallies, speeches and news bytes calling for Urdu to be given a classical language status.