An old video of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar attending an Iftar party last year has been shared with a false and communal claim that the two are celebrating their Karnataka election win at a Muslim event.
BOOM found that the video is from April 2022 and has no links to the Karnataka elections that took place in May this year.
The video shows Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar at the feast wearing shemagh scarves and hats.
On May 20, 2023, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar took their oaths as CM and deputy CM of Karnataka respectively, following Congress' win in the state elections. The viral video is being shared in this backdrop to claim that the two celebrated their win with a feast.
Right-wing account Megh Updates on Twitter shared the 30-second clip with the caption, "Are they CM and Deputy CM of Karnataka ?"
BOOM has previously fact-checked several false claims made by this account. Read here and here.
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
Another popular caption on Facebook reads, "The CM and Deputy CM of Karnataka are celebrating by wearing new uniforms! You cannot recognize them. God save Karnataka."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is from April 2022 when Siddaramaiah hosted an Iftar party organised by Karnataka's housing minister Zameer Ahmed Khan. DK Shivakumar was also present at this party.
We looked at the video closely and found that a banner in the background read 'Dawat-e-Iftaar'.
Taking a cue from this, we used keywords such as DK Shivakumar, Siddaramiah, and Iftar party in Kannada to look for the video. We found a video report by News18 Urdu uploaded on April 16, 2022, that carried similar visuals. The title of the video read, 'Karnataka New: Sabiq CM Siddaramaiah Ki Janib Se Iftar Party Ka Ehtemam | News18 Urdu'.
The banner seen in the video along with Siddaramaiah's attire were a match to our viral video.
Here is a comparison:
We also found a video uploaded by OneIndia Kannada on April 16 with the title 'This is how Siddaramaiah and DK were seen at the Iftar party.'
(Original text in Kannada: 'ಇಫ್ತಿಯಾರ್ ಕೂಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿದ್ದರಾಮಯ್ಯ,ಡಿಕೆಶಿ ಕಂಡುಬಂದಿದ್ದು ಹೀಗೆ..')
A portion of this video from 0:52 is an exact match to our viral video.
According to both reports, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar attended Zameer Ahmed Khan's annual Iftar party on April 15 at Nalapad Pavilion Palace Grounds, Bengaluru, where several religious heads were also present.
We searched Zameer Ahmed Khan's official Facebook account and found that he had posted photos and videos from the event on April 15, 2022.
The portion beginning from 0:49 of the video below is an exact match to our viral video.
