Fact Check: Kalma recited at Congress’s new Jaipur office opening? No, here’s the truth
A video claiming that only Islamic prayers were recited at the inauguration of a new Congress party office in Jaipur is going viral on social media.
By - K Sherly Sharon
Claim:The video shows Kalma being recited at the inauguration of the new Congress party office in Jaipur.
Fact:The claim is false. The video shows an interfaith prayer meeting organised at the Congress party headquarters in Jaipur, Rajasthan, on October 31, 2023.
Hyderabad: A video is going viral on social media with the claim that it shows Kalma being recited during the inauguration of the Congress party office in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
In the video, we can see a woman filming a gathering where an Islamic prayer is being recited.
The video was shared on X with the caption, “At the inauguration of the Congress party’s new office in Jaipur, neither the Sundarkand nor a Ganesh puja was performed; instead, Kalma was recited. Notably, Congress’s Hindu workers participated actively in the event and no one raised any objection.” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video shows an interfaith prayer meeting organised at Congress party headquarters in Rajasthan on October 31, 2023.
Analysing the video
The viral video looked to be a screen recording of a Facebook live video by a user ‘Heena Khan’. This is visible at the end of the video, where the screen flashes the text ‘Heena Khan was live’ with a profile picture.
Using this information, we performed keyword searches and found the profile of ‘Heena Khan’. This Facebook account contains hashtags such as ‘General Secretary, Jaipur City, District Congress Committee’.
An image showing the comparison of the profile pictures of the user from the viral video and the Facebook profile can be found below.
In a picture uploaded on January 1, the user was seen conveying New Year wishes and the image shows that Heena Khan is the General Secretary of Jaipur City District Congress Committee.
However, the viral video was not present on the account.
What is the incident shown in the video?
To find out more about the context in the viral visuals, we searched the account and found a post made by the user Heena Khan containing four images. The post was made on October 31, 2023, with the caption, “Tribute to former Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary.” (Translated from Hindi)
In these images, she can be seen wearing the same white and black outfit as in the viral video.
The images also show a group of people sitting on a white sheet while the framed images of Rahul Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi can be seen on the walls.
A comparison of the screenshots from the Facebook images and the viral video can be found below, which shows they are of the same event.
Keyword searches led us to a Facebook post made on the same day by Namo Narain Meena, Former Minister of Finance of India and Rajasthan Congress leader. The post contains images from the same meeting organised and shared in a post on October 21, 2023.
More evidence via social media posts
The caption read, “Indira Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel were honoured at the Sarvadharma prayer meeting held at the PCC headquarters today on the occasion of the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Late Smt. Indira Gandhi and the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.” (Translated from Hindi)
The caption confirmed that the images show an interfaith prayer meeting held on October 31, 2023, at the PCC headquarters in Jaipur.
Posts from 2024 and 2025 confirm event
We also found a post made by Sangeetha Beniwal, Congress party leader and Former Chairperson of the Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, on the same day.
The post contains a video from the same meeting, the song ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’ can be heard in the background. Heena Khan can also be seen in this video.
We found that the viral video was shared on X with similar claims on August 1, 2024.
Clarification from Congress
Swarnim Chaturvedi, General Secretary of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee, retweeted the video on August 2, 2024, and dismissed the claim with the clarification that the video shows an interfaith prayer gathering held at the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress headquarters in Jaipur.
He wrote, “At an interfaith prayer meeting held at the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress headquarters in Jaipur, a video clip containing excerpts from hymns, Gurbani, the Bible, and the Quran was played, which is being used to spread misinformation against the Congress party. The Congress party’s new office in Jaipur is yet to be constructed, and the party will soon take legal action.”
Yearly tradition
We also found images from a meeting held on October 31, 2025, shared on Facebook by Vaibhav Gehlot. Gehlot contested as the Congress party candidate from the Jalore Lok Sabha constituency. The same images were shared on his X profile.
The images were shared on Facebook and X with the Hindi caption, “I was present at the interfaith prayer meeting held at the state Congress office on the martyrdom day of former Prime Minister late Smt. Indira Gandhi and the birth anniversary of the late Shri Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.”
This clarified that the interfaith prayer meetings are commonly organised to commemorate the Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary. This is evident from the social media posts that shared details of the meetings held every year on October 31, the death anniversary of the late PM.
Therefore, it is clear that the video shows an interfaith prayer meeting held in remembrance of the Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the Congress Party headquarters, Jaipur, on October 31, 2023.
It does not show Islamic prayers being recited at the inauguration of the new Congress party office in Jaipur in 2026. NewsMeter concludes that the viral claim is false.
