Fact Check: Congress leader Pawan Khera slams Swami Avimukteshwaranand for remarks on Rahul Gandhi? No, video is edited

Hyderabad: The leader of the Jyotirmat in Uttarakhand, Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, who holds the position of the 46th Shankaracharya, is in the news over a confrontation with the Uttar Pradesh government.

He has alleged that the State administration, under UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, prevented him from taking a holy dip at the Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya on January 18. He also alleged that his followers were mistreated.

Meanwhile, a video has been widely circulating on social media, claiming that Congress leader Pawan Khera purportedly called the seer shameless and arrogant.

What are the comments Pawan Khera allegedly made on the seer?

The video is divided into three clips. Khera could be first heard saying, “The Shankaracharyas, who are considered the crown jewels of Sanatan Dharma, currently Avimukteshwaranand Ji is simply saying that according to Sanatan tradition, he should be allowed to perform the ritual bath properly, and he is the supreme saint of Hindus.”

The second clip shows Avimukteshwaranand Ji attacking Rahul Gandhi, where he could be heard saying, “The temple belongs to Hindus, it cannot be otherwise. He is not a Hindu; he is not a declared Hindu—one who speaks wrongly about Hindu scriptures, how can he be a Hindu? We have already expelled him.”

The video ends with a clip of Khera, in which he allegedly attacks Avimukteshwaranand after his criticism of Rahul Gandhi. Khera is purportedly heard saying, “Now he is no longer a Shankaracharya. This is the height of arrogance. This is what they call ‘vinaash kaale vipareet buddhi’ (when destruction is near, one’s intellect works against them). Who are you? What is your status/standing? Shame on such people. This is shamelessness, this is indecency, this is nothing less than brazenness.”

By using three clips, those sharing the video are claiming that Khera, who had praised Avimukteshwaranand in the beginning after the seer confronted the BJP-led UP State government, now calls him ‘shameless and arrogant’ after the seer allegedly questioned Rahul Gandhi’s Hindu credentials.

An X user, who shared the video, wrote, “Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera is now calling Shankaracharya the crown jewel of Sanatan and Sant Shiromani. In the same video, listen to their statement from just four days ago, when they were talking about the same Shankaracharya—Who is Shankaracharya? Who are you? What is your status? You are shameless. You are brazen. You are impudent. You are arrogant. In times of destruction, wisdom turns perverse.” (Translated from Hindi) (Archive)

But did Pawan Khera do a flip-flop on his opinion about Swami Avimukteshwaranand?

Fact Check

First clip

We conducted a keyword search and found a press briefing by Pawan Khera at the Congress Office in New Delhi, live-streamed on the party’s YouTube channel on January 20.

The first clip was created by splicing together footage from two separate moments in the video.

At the 3:54 timestamp, Khera can be heard saying, “The Shankaracharyas, who are regarded as the crown jewels of Sanatan Dharma, currently Avimukteshwaranand Ji. Will some District Magistrate decide? Will the administration decide? Will the Chief Minister decide whether he is a Shankaracharya or not? Who are you? What is your standing?”

At 7:06, Khera could be heard saying, “Avimukteshwaranand Ji is simply saying that according to Sanatan tradition, he should be allowed to perform the ritual bath properly, and he is the supreme saint of Hindus. They say permission is required, sir—permission is needed to bathe in Mother Ganga. Will any person living in India have to take permission to bathe in Mother Ganga? And this is the supreme saint of Hindus—will he have to take permission from Ajay Singh Bisht (Yogi Adityanath)?”

It is clear from the above excerpts that the sentences from two different timestamps from the same press briefing have been spliced.

Second clip

Again, we conducted a keyword search and found the video of Swami Avimukteshwaranand, bashing Rahul Gandhi over his Hindu credentials, which premiered on News 18 on January 15. The video was titled ‘Avimukteshwaranand on Rahul Gandhi: They are not Hindus, they should not be allowed to enter the Ram temple’.

The clip appears in the video exactly at the 9-minute mark.

Third clip

While the message in the first two clips is consistent with what is mentioned in the claim, physical manipulation of the video notwithstanding, the third clip has been manipulated to deliberately make it look like Khera was criticising Swami Avimukteshwaranand.

This clip is from the same press briefing of Khera at the Congress Office in New Delhi, which was published on January 20.

From 2:20 minutes to 3:10 minutes into the video, Khera says, “Forget about the UP government and administration apologising—on the contrary, a notice came at midnight at 12 o’clock from the Uttar Pradesh government. In that notice, it is stated that, sir, we do not consider you a Shankaracharya. This is the height of arrogance; this is what they call vinaash kaale vipareet buddhi (when destruction is near, one's intellect works against them). This is the shameless BJP.”

In the clip, he was criticising the BJP government and not Swami Avimukteshwaranand.

It is clear from this excerpt that the third clip has been heavily edited to maliciously depict that Khera was taking on Swami Avimukteshwaranand after he called out Rahul Gandhi.

While the first and third clips are from the same Khera’s press conference on January 20, the second clip of the seer is from January 15, published by News 18.

Hence, the claim that Khera has called Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati 'shameless and arrogant', after he allegedly called out Rahul Gandhi’s Hindu credentials, is false.