A video of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray praising a soldier named Aurangzeb is being shared with a false claim that he praised the Mughal emperor with the same name.
BOOM found that the video is from an event held in Aurangabad where the CM was talking about the brave acts of a soldier Aurangzeb who was killed by militants in 2018.
The video shows Thackeray addressing a large gathering where he says, "Do you know who that soldier was? Do you know his name? His name was Aurangzeb who sacrificed his life for his country. What are we to say? Tch Tch, he was a Muslim and not ours?! No! He cried for my country, my mother land. The country for which people are ready to lay down their lives, whatever may it be his religion, he is ours. That is our Hindutva. That is our Hindutva..."
The video is being shared as the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government in Maharashtra appears to be on the brink of collapsing.
The clipped version of the video is being shared with various captions in Hindi all claiming that Thackeray is referring to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Several right wing groups have in the recent past accused Aurangzeb of being a religious fanatic who razed several Hindu temples to build mosques.
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FACT CHECK
We noticed that the viral video has a logo of TV9 Marathi and using that we ran a keyword search on YouTube and found an upload by the channel on June 8, 2022 which matched the viral video.
The channel uploaded Thackeray's speech from Aurangabad where he was addressing supporters and criticised the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's Hindutva politics.
In the video at the time stamp 1.16, Thackeray says, "There was such a soldier who was fighting for India. He had killed many terrorists as a gunman. He was on his way home for holiday and was kidnapped and then after a few days his bullet ridden body was found by the army. Do you know who that soldier was? Do you know his name? His name was Aurangzeb who sacrificed his life for his country. What are we to say? Tch Tch, he was a Muslim and not ours?! No! He cried for my country, my mother land. The country for which people are ready to lay down their lives, whatever may it be his religion, he is ours. That is our Hindutva. That is our Hindutva..."
Watch video below -
Rifleman Aurangzeb was with the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry and was posted with the 44 Rashtriya Rifles camp at Shadimarg in Shopian when he was abducted in June 2018. Aurangzeb's bullet ridden body was later found and laid to rest with full state honours. Aurangzeb's death led to widespread outrage in the Kashmir valley and a detailed investigation led to the arrest of three soldiers with the Rashtriya Rifles for sharing his whereabouts with terrorists.
On August 25, 2018, Aurangzeb was conferred the Shaurya Chakra – the third-highest peacetime gallantry award.