Vivek Agnihotri Tweets Misleading Video Of Kanhaiya Kumar Speaking About Islam

Vivek Agnihotri tweeted a cropped video of Kanhaiya Kumar purporting to show the former student leader from Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, had adopted Islam. The filmmaker and author of the book 'Urban Naxals' tweeted the 35 second clip attacking Kanhaiya.

BREAKING: Azaadi premi, #UrbanNaxals ke maseeha, tukdon ke paigambar, Secular Janaab Kanhaiya taking about his religion publicly. pic.twitter.com/xAiGrdGj1L

� Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) November 12, 2018

View an archived version of the tweet here. Kanhaiya Kumar appears to be saying the following in the viral clip tweeted by Agnihotri. "Our history is linked to this place. We all haven't walked all the way from Arab to this country. We have grown up here and the specialty of that religion...and the older religions that practiced untouchability was the reason why people embraced this religion. Because this (religion) talks of peace, of equality. In the mosque, social hierarchy is not practiced. On this basis we have embraced this religion and we will not leave it." However the video is a compilation of three separate clips which have taken Kanhaiya's statements out of context from the entire speech. Jump cuts in the video can be seen at 26 and 31 seconds. The clips have been culled from a speech made by Kanhaiya in August this year at Naded where he broadly spoke about Islamophobia and the importance of education for the Muslim community in India. In the first clip Kanhaiya is not speaking about Islam as his own faith but rather loosely quoting Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

Watch the video below (YouTube counter 11.49)

The other two clips where Kanhaiya says, "We will save ourselves as well as our community and the country and this is our moral responsibility. Allah has a lot of power" and "Allah taala will keep us safe" are also taken out of context. Kanhaiya speaks about politicians that project themselves to be saviours of the Muslim community. It is in this context that he advises Muslims to oppose such leaders and urges them to press such candidates to speak about education and jobs.

Fake news website Dainik Bharat has grossly twisted Kanhiya's statements. The viral video was earlier debunked by TimesFactcheck