Uddhav Thackrey did not call Mughal emperor Aurangzeb his brother

People sharing the video suggest that the former CM called the 17th-century Mughal emperor Aurangzeb a brother and martyr for India.

Nitesh Rane, BJP leader and a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for the Kankavli constituency, shared the video calling Mr. Thackeray the “Biggest traitor.” (Archive)

Another Twitter user shared the video mocking Mr. Thackeray and said, “Aurangzeb gave his life for Mother India. Everyone who comes in contact with Congress is Pappu.” (Archive) Click here to see the post.

The video is viral on Facebook as well with the same claim.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video is clipped and does not show the full context.

We found a longer version of the video live-streamed on the official Facebook account of Mr. Thackeray. He addressed the north Indian community at an event organised in Andheri, Mumbai.

At around 32 minutes, he starts talking about Aurangzeb. “You would have forgotten or not even read. One of our soldiers in Kashmir had taken leave to meet his family. On his way home, he was kidnapped and killed by terrorists, and his body was found after some days. Was he ours or not? He sacrificed his life for the country, but if I say he was our brother, you will ask his name. His name was Aurangzeb, and he was from the Muslim community, but he sacrificed his life for our country, so he was our brother.”

Next, we searched for the martyred soldier and found an NDTV report from 24 July 2019. It said when Aurangzeb was on his way back home to Poonch to celebrate Eid with his family, he was abducted and later killed by armed terrorists in South Kashmir’s Shopian district on 14 June 2018. He was a rifleman in the Army’s 44 Rashtriya Rifles.

It also said that 13 months after the murder of Aurangzeb, his two brothers, Mohammad Tariq and Mohammad Shabir, joined the Army to serve the nation and “avenge his death.”

During our investigation, we found that earlier, in June 2020, too, Mr. Thackeray had narrated the tale of Indian Army rifleman Aurangzeb at a rally in Aurangabad. He said his party Shiv Sena respects all those who are martyred for India, regardless of religion or caste.

We also found his Marathi speech from the rally which was published by the TV9 YouTube channel on 8 June 2022.

Hence, we conclude that the viral clip does not show the full context and is misleading.