An edited video showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi walking with the heads of states at Rajghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi as Raghupati Raghav is played in the background is circulating with false claims that the word Allah was omitted from the bhajan.
BOOM found that the video has been edited and overlaid with an audio. In the original video, the line 'Ishwar Allah Tero Naam' from the bhajan 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' was played.
Several heads of foreign governments, who were in New Delhi to be part of the G20 summit on September 9-10, paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi on September 10 at New Delhi's memorial complex Rajghat. The event was attended by US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK PM Rishi Sunak, Italian PM Georgia Meloni, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov along with other world leaders. PM Modi also tweeted photos of him with other international delegates from the event.
Right wing users posted a video from the event claiming that one of the favourite hymns of Mahatma Gandhi 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' was played without the word 'Allah' during the event.
The video is being shared with a Hindi caption that translates to, "Wow Modi ji wow, thanks from the heart of every Hindu for playing the right bhajan to the people of India and that too from Rajghat. Listen carefully!!".
(Original Text in Hindi: वाह मोदी जी वाह, भारत वासियों को सही भजन सुनाने और वो भी राजघाट से हर एक हिंदू के दिल से धन्यवाद। ध्यान से सुनिए!!)
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Fact Check
BOOM performed a related keyword search on YouTube and found a video from the event that was streamed live on Prime Minister of India's official YouTube channel on September 10, 2023.
The description with the video reads, "Kickstarting the second day of the G20 Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the world leaders at Rajghat, the samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi, where they paid homage and laid wreath to the father of the nation. He welcomed the leaders at Rajghat with a gift of Khadi and explained about Sabarmati Ashram as they posed for a picture with the Ashram picture behind them."
We then went through the video and noticed that the hymn 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' was played during the event.
From 1:20:55 hour time mark in the video, the bhajan 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' starts playing in the background as the world leaders depart from the memorial site after paying homage. The line in the hymn 'Ishwar Allah Tero Naam, Sabko Sanmati De Bhagwan' can be heard at 1:22:04 timestamp in the video.
On the other hand, a keyword search for 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram LoFi' led us to the same song that has been overlaid to the visuals of the world leaders visiting Rajghat.
The segment of the song, which has been used in the viral clip, can be heard from 1:20 minutes to 2:47 minutes time mark.
The Bhajan - Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram
According to the Ministry of Culture, Government of India website, Indian Culture, "Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram and Vaishnav Jan To were two favourite hymns of Mahatma Gandhi, who hailed from the Porbandar district in Gujarat. These bhajans eventually became the chants of the Satyagraha movement."
It further adds, "Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram is based on the 17th hymn of Ramdas. There were numerous versions of the poem by the 20th century. Gandhiji preferred the tune by Pandit Vishnu Digambar Pulaskar. Mahatma Gandhi modified the third line of the hymn when he adopted it to "Ishwar Allah Tere Naam; Sabko Sanmati De Bhagwan" to include Muslims as well."
