A 2015 quote by Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on "supporting Muslims and other minorities in the United States" has been revived in the wake of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests across the country. Protesters allege that the CAA, when enacted with the National Register of Citizen (NRC), would disenfranchise the Muslim community in India.
Pichai's quote is being misleadingly shared as being supportive of the current anti-CAA movement in India.
Also Read: Did Sundar Pichai Say, "An Illiterate Person Can Become India's FM"?
On December 17, 2019, as the protests continue to rock the country, BOOM received an image of a newspaper article on its helpline with the caption :"Bhakts, stop using Google now".
Image received on BOOM Helpline
The article contained a quote by Pichai stating, "We must support Muslims and other minority communities."
Upon searching for the quote on Twitter, we found that a 2015 Economic Times article carrying this quote has been shared multiple times recently on the micro-blogging site.Screenshot of tweets
Upon going through the ET article, BOOM noticed that the quote was based on a 2015 blog post on Medium by Pichai himself, where he talks about providing opportunity to Muslims and other minorities and accepted them as new Americans.
The blog post ends with the quote, "Let's not let fear defeat our values. We must support Muslim and other minority communities in the US and around the world."
While the article largely highlights Pichai's experience as an immigrant in the United States, it does not make any reference to the Indian Muslim community. Furthermore, given that it is from 2015, shortly after he was made the CEO of Google, the quote has no direct link to the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in India.
Also Read: Just Another Fake Quote By Google CEO Sundar Pichai
Pichai has been a favourite target of the rumours mills, with many fake quotes of his "commentary on Indian politics" going viral on social media in the past. This time round, a 4-year old quote of his is being revived in the wake of the ongoing protests. However, Pichai's quote was in the context of Islamophobia in the United States, and has no relevance to the debate around religious discrimination in India.