A video of a United Kingdom based Hinduism professor talking about reintroducing Hinduism as a subject in Indian schools is viral with a false claim that he is a Muslim and a minister in the British cabinet.
BOOM found that the video is from 2017 and was shared by a YouTube channel called Hindu Academy. The man seen speaking in the video is Jay Lakhani, a theoretical physicist and a professor of Hindu studies who is also the founder of the channel in question.
The video is viral with the caption, "He is Muslim minister in UK, look what he says. very surprised. Spare a minute and watch!"
In the 02:35 seconds video, Lakhani is heard criticising India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's education policies and blaming him from removing Hinduism from the school syllabus, "In India, for some very weird reason they decided to take Hinduism out of the syllabus. You can't teach Hinduism in a single Indian school. And how did this come about? I will be very blunt and honest on camera. This came about with the compliments of Nehru. This foolish man thought Hinduism should be taken out of the syllabus as its a secular world. In India, which is supposed to be a secular nation, they took Hinduism out of the syllabus."
He also added that he is in touch with the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reintroduce the same in the curriculum.
BOOM received the video on its WhatsApp helpline (+91-7700906588) asking for verification.
This video is being shared on Facebook with a similar caption.
Fact Check
BOOM found that the man in the video is neither Muslim nor has he ever been a minister in the UK government. Although based in UK, late Jay Lakhani is a theoretical physicist and global speaker.
Lakhani, a Gujarati based in UK, used to run a YouTube channel called Hindu academy and has published several books on Hinduism. Before his death on December 4, 2020, Lakhani was the first Hindu tutor at Eton College and was known for his GCSE and A-Level Hinduism classes.
BOOM compared Lakhani's face with an obituary written for him in December 2020 and also went through his other videos where he identifies himself on his channel.
Through a keyword search on YouTube, we found that the viral video was uploaded on his channel in February, 2017.
BOOM did not find any records of Lakhani having any ministerial role in the UK government.
The same video has been viral with captions that falsely identify him to be a Muslim minister in the UK government even in 2018 and 2019.