Smriti Irani Insulted Goddess Durga In Her Speech? No, Old Video Viral With False Claim

During the India Today conclave, TMC MP Mahua Moitra gave a controversial statement about Goddess Kali in which she said that meat and liquor are offered to Goddess Kali. After her statement, many political parties including BJP objected to her statement. Trinamool Congress also condemned the remarks made by Moitra after which Moitra unfollowed party's official Twitter handle.

Now, an old video of Union Minister for Minority Affairs and Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani is going viral on social media. In the viral video, Smriti can be seen talking about Goddess Durga while reading a pamphlet. She says, "Durga Puja is the most controversial racial festival, where a fair-skinned beautiful goddess Durga is depicted brutally killing a dark-skinned native called Mahishasura. Mahishasura, a brave self-respecting leader, was tricked into marriage by the Aryans. They hired Durga who trapped Mahishasura into marriage and killed him after 9 days of honeymooning." While sharing this video, people on social media claimed that Smriti Irani insulted Goddess Durga in Parliament.

A Twitter user shared this video and wrote, "Friends, you should not forget the ugly remarks of Smriti Irani in the context of mother Durga."

A Facebook user wrote, "#মা_দূর্গা প্রসংগে সেদিনের #স্মৃতি_ইরানির কুৎশিত মন্তব্য ভুলে গেলে চলবে না বন্ধুগণ‼ স্মৃতি ইরানিকে #কে #কখন #কোন_অবস্থায় মা দূর্গা প্রসংগে কুৎসিত মন্তব্য করেছে যা স্মৃতি ইরানি ছাড়া আর কেউ জানে না."

[English Translation: Friends, we should not forget the ugly remarks of Smriti Irani in the context of Mother Durga. How many of you knows when Smriti Irani made ugly remarks about mother Durga.]

It is being widely shared on Facebook and Twitter with a similar claim.

Claim:

Union Minister Smriti Irani insulted Goddess Durga during a parliament session.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. The viral video is from 2016 and presented out of context.

During the initial investigation, we used InVid's Keyframe analysis tool to isolate the keyframes of the video. We conducted a reverse image search on one of the isolated keyframes which led us to a video uploaded on the official YouTube handle of Bharatiya Janata Party dated 24 february 2016 in which same footage can be seen. The title of the video reads, "Smt. Smriti Irani's speech in reply to debate on JNU and Rohith Vemula issues - 24.02.2016." According to the video, Smirti Irani was responding to the criticism of the government over its handling of the events at JNU stated that "anti-national" events had taken place at the campus.

At 31 minute of timestamp, one can heard Smriti Irani talking about the pamphlet which were allegedly distributed in JNU on 10 February 2016. After this, she reads the pamphlet which talk about the Goddess Durga and Mahisasura, the same clip which we seen in the viral video. It clearly means that in the viral video Smriti Irani was reading the pamphlet which was distributed in JNU. At 31:26 of timestamp on can see the same footage as seen in the viral video.

It is evident from our investigation that in the viral video, Smriti Irani was actually reading the excerpt of a pamphlet which was distributed in JNU regarding Goddess Durga. It was falsely shared with a claim that Smriti Irani insulted Goddess Durga during a parliament session.

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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