Did Naseeruddin Shah advocate violence through Manglesh Dabral's poem?
The poet’s desire is for the Hindi alphabet to symbolise good things but it symbolises the opposite.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 4 Oct 2022 1:30 PM GMT
Hyderabad: Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri posted a video on Twitter of actor Naseeruddin Shah reading a poem by Manglesh Dabral. The poet's desire is for the Hindi alphabet to symbolise good things but it symbolises the opposite.
In the video, as Naseeruddin Shah recites the poem, we see visuals of violence committed by the Muslims or suffered by the Hindus. It includes images of the two Muslim men who beheaded a Udaipur tailor, Manish who was murdered in Delhi by three Muslim men, and Mumtaz Qadri who assassinated Punjab Governor Salman Taseer in 2011 in Pakistan. It also shows alleged oppression against Hindus in Pakistan and news clippings about violence against Hindus in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Canada, the UK, and the US.
The video has been edited in such a way as to suggest that the actor is advocating violence.
Taking a dig at fact-checkers, Agnihotri shared the video with the caption, "Someone sent me this. 'Fact Checker bin Chief' of India should check if it's real or fake." (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter performed a reverse image search of the video's keyframes and found a video of Naseeruddin Shah reading the same poem. It was uploaded on YouTube by BBC Hindi on 14 September 2021. The video did not have any visuals of violence or oppression against the Hindu community.
At the beginning of the video, the actor can be heard introducing himself and saying, "On the occasion of Hindi Diwas (Hindi Day), I want to read a poem by Manglesh Dabral." In the video posted by Agnihotri, the introduction part and the word "Hindi Diwas" have been cleverly removed.
The description of the video also states that the actor read the poem by Manglesh Dabral on the occasion of Hindi Day.
We also found the video in an article published by BBC Hindi on 14 September 2021. The article has the transcription of the poem, and it says that Naseeruddin Shah read one of the famous poems by Manglesh Dabral on the occasion of Hindi Day.
BBC Hindi tweeted the video on 14 September 2022.
It is evident that the video was produced by BBC on the occasion of Hindi Diwas in 2021, and it did not contain visuals of violence or oppression against Hindus. Hence, we can conclude that the video posted by filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri is edited and any assumption that Naseeruddin Shah is advocating violence in the video is false.
