Fact Check: AIMIM leader makes controversial ‘15 minutes’ comment at Hyderabad meeting? Here’s the truth

The clip shows the leader saying to a cheering crowd, “15 minutes are still remaining. I’m also slave of Akbaruddin Owaisi. I’m also a '15 minutes' person.”

The ‘15 minutes comment’ refers to a controversial statement made by AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi in 2013 about ‘removing police for 15 minutes to show who is powerful.’

On May 8, BJP leader Navneet Rana, while campaigning for Hyderabad BJP candidate Madhavi Latha, responded to the remark with a veiled warning, stating, “It might take you 15 minutes, but it will only take us 15 seconds.” Her comments were directed at the Owaisi brothers, who have held political dominance in Hyderabad for decades.

The comment has resurfaced and sparked reactions online. An X user shared it with the caption, “15 minutes comment by AIMIM leader again @CPHydCity @hydcitypolice provocation again,” and tagged Hyderabad’s City Commissioner and the police, suggesting that the comment was made at a recent event.(Archive)

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The viral video is not from Hyderabad but from an election campaign event at Urdu Ghar, Nanded, during the Maharashtra elections last year.

A keyword search led us to the full video uploaded on November 18, 2024, on a YouTube channel named MCN Urdu News Nanded. The caption of the video stated that it was from an election campaign of AIMIM candidate Syed Moin at Urdu Ghar in Nanded.

At the 41:41-minute mark, the contents of the YouTube video matched with the viral clip, confirming the clip’s origin. Additionally, the viral video carried a watermark of MCN Urdu News, which matched the logo of the YouTube channel that uploaded the full-length video. This confirmed that the footage is from the Maharashtra election campaign and not from a Hyderabad event.

Further, a post by IANS India on X, dated February 25, 2025, showed Syed Moin addressing the controversy surrounding his ‘15 minutes’ remark.

In his clarification, he stated, “It has been a long time since the ‘15 minutes’ comment has been made. I was a candidate of AIMIM from Nanded for the Legislative Assembly elections. I made that statement on the last day of campaigning when 15 minutes were left for my speech. When I heard people talking about the time left, I said that there were still 15 minutes left and that I was also a '15 minutes' man. If I had made any derogatory comments against any community or religion or my Hindu brothers, certainly, action would have been taken against me immediately and an FIR would have been filed.” In his clarification, we can see that Syed Moin said he made the ‘15 minutes’ comment during a speech in Nanded, not Hyderabad.

Therefore, the claim that an AIMIM leader recently made that comment in Hyderabad is false. The video is from an election campaign in Nanded, Maharashtra, and is unrelated to Hyderabad.