Old Video From 2019 Shared As Recent Incident Of BJP Leader Unable To Recite Vande Mataram During Har Ghar Tiranga Campaign

A video is going viral on social media, showing a man wrongly reciting the national anthem. The video is being circulated within the context of the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign, with netizens alleging that the video shows Rameshwar Sharma, BJP MLA from Madhya Pradesh.

The campaign encourages people to hoist the Tricolour in their homes from 13th to 15th August 2022. The Logical Indian reported that the campaign is a part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and was launched with the aim of mobilising over 20 crore households.

Claim:

The 8 seconds video shows a man uttering the beginning of the Indian National Song. The man says, "Vande Mataram, Sunde Mataram".

Congress Minority Department has tweeted and shared the video on Facebook with the claim, "Madhya Pradesh BJP MLA Rameshwar Sharma reciting the national anthem during the 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign."

The video was also tweeted and shared on Facebook by Rohan Gupta, the National Spokesperson of Congress, with the same claim.

Congress MLA Shashank Bhargava also tweeted the video with the same claim.

Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress shared the video on Facebook with the same claim.

The video is viral across Twitter and Facebook. with the same claim.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be misleading. The viral video is from 2019.

We conducted a keyword search with relevant terms such as 'MLA Rameshwar Sharma Vande Mataram' and came across this article by The Times of India, published on January 3, 2019.

The article mentioned how local BJP leaders in Bhopal had struggled to recite Vande Mataram in its entirety. The article quotes Congress leader Surendra Nath Singh who says, "Very few people know the complete text of Vande Mataram." The article also quotes MLA Rameshwar Sharma, who says that despite him not being able to sing Vande Mataram on his own, it doesn't mean that he disrespects the national song.

We noticed that the logo of NewsTak is visible in the viral video. After a keyword search on the news outlet's YouTube channel, we came across this video published on January 4, 2019. The video is titled, "Listening to the Vande Mataram of BJP leaders, you will be left laughing! EXCLUSIVE | News". Right at the beginning of the video, the viral video's clip can be seen.

At the 1:58 second mark in the video, the extended clip of the viral video can be seen where the man recites a few more lines of Vande Mataram.

After this, we conducted another keyword search to find out more details about this incident. We came across an Amar Ujala article published on January 1, 2019. The article stated that the Kamal Nath-led government had decided to stop the recitation of Vande Mataram in the state secretariat on the 1st of every month. As a part of this tradition, all the employees of the ministry used to gather on the premises on the first day of the month and sing the national anthem 'Vande Mataram' together. The state argued that the employees should pay more attention to the public's welfare. After this tradition was revoked, BJP leaders mounted a protest against this decision.

We came across an article by Hindustan Times published on January 2, 2019, which carried reactions to the decision by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the BJP leader who expressed his outrage by saying that he would sing Vande Mataram along with other 108 BJP members at the state secretariat on January 7. Shivraj Chouhan had also tweeted on the issue in 2019.

Meanwhile, the Kamal Nath government stated that the singing of the national song would be implemented in a different format. "Neither has this decision been taken under any agenda nor are we opposed to the singing of Vande Mataram." Kamal Nath is quoted as saying, as per the report.

As this issue was raging on, BJP leaders in Bhopal gathered at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Park to protest against the then Madhya Pradesh government by reciting the national song. While they were attempting to recite it, the video of MLA Rameshwar Sharma was recorded.

We came across an article by The Indian Express published on January 3, 2019, which noted that Vande Mataram would be sung on the first working day of every month in the secretariat. Alongwith the singing, a police band would march from Shourya Samarak to Vallabh Bhawan in Bhopal while playing Vande Mataram, as per the report.

In our Fact Check, we came across this video uploaded on Twitter by BJP MLA Rameshwar Sharma. The tweet, January 2, 2019, carries the caption, "We will sing Vande Mataram, we will sing till our breath lasts. Congress is following in Jinnah's footsteps by becoming a puppet in the hands of terrorism, but this country knows the truth."

In the video, he can be heard saying, "Vande Mataram has been provided by the freedom fighters of India, not the BJP. The Congress needs to apologise for its actions, but India will not forgive the Congress."

"Congress is attempting to divide the country by following Jinnah's example. Kamal Nath's decision to ban the singing of Vande Mataram on the 1st of the month is seen as an insult to patriots. We will take revenge of this insult." he says in the video.

Conclusion:

In our Fact Check, we found out that the video dates back to January 2019. The video shows BJP MLA Rameshwar Sharma who was attempting to sing Vande Mataram at a protest by local BJP leaders in Bhopal, protesting against the decision by the Kamal-Nath government.

The decision to stop the playing of Vande Mataram at the state secretariat on the first of every month was revoked by the Kamal Nath government and was replaced by a resumption of recitation alongwith a marching band. Hence, the viral claim is misleading.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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