A clipped video of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is being shared on social media falsely claiming that he said that he would like to be born a Muslim in his next life. BOOM found that CM Siddaramaiah in his original speech was referring to a comment made by former Prime Minister and Janta Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Deve Gowda while calling him out for for allying with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state, calling their politics "non- secular" in nature.
The 20-second video was posted on X by right wing handle, Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) with the caption, "Siddaramaiah wants to be born as Muslim in his next birth"
BOOM has previously debunked misinformation posted by Bagree.
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The same video is also on X with a claim in Kannada which translates to, "Why wait for the next life, convert now itself"
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is clipped from a section of CM Siddaramaiah's speech at a public address in Mandya on March 10, 2024.
In the original speech, Siddaramaiah refers to Janata Dal (Secular) supremo HD Deve Gowda and reminds him of his own earlier statement, where he said he would never support BJP and would also like to be born a Muslim in his next life. Siddaramaiah uses the old comment by Gowda to criticise him for allying with the BJP.
We ran a search on YouTube and found the original speech where at the 18.39 minutes timestamp, Siddaramaiah says in Kannada, "This Deve Gowda (had said) I will never join BJP for any reason...(and had also said) if there is a next life, I wish to be born as a Muslim. Why? Because BJP is a non-secular party." He then goes on to point out that Deve Gowda also never praised BJP in the past, to make the point that Gowda has now gone against his own words by allying with the BJP.
The first part of his sentence where he names Dewe Gowda and the last part of the sentence where he attacks him for allying with the BJP has been cropped out of the viral video to remove the context and mislead viewers.
We also found the speech that was posted by Yolo TV Karnataka's
YouTube channel.
Several news reports also reported on the same speech and how Siddaramaiah reminded Deve Gowda of his previous anti-BJP stance.
The Hindu in a March 10, 2024 report about the same public address in Mandya, reported, “It is quite surprising to me that Mr. Gowda has now joined the BJP and has been praising him (Narendra Modi) . Mr. Gowda had said that he would wish to be born as a Muslim in his next birth and had stated that he would be against the BJP always.”
We also found that Siddaramaiah in an interview in February made the same comments about Deve Gowda's old statements. A PTI story, republished by Deccan Herald, reported, "Siddaramaiah said he vividly remembers Deve Gowda once saying that he would prefer to be born as a 'Musalman' in his next birth, but today he has forged an alliance with the BJP."
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