The false claim surfaced ahead of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election on November 20, where Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) was working with an opposition bloc hoping to dethrone the state’s ruling coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The video was shared on X and Facebook with similar claims.
However, in the video, Thackeray can be seen referring to comments made by Kiren Rijiju – a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, who is a Buddhist and says he eats beef.
Cut video
A reverse image search on Google found a longer version of the video posted on the official Shiv Sena (UBT) YouTube channel on October 12, 2024 (archived link).
The video is titled: “Dussehra Gathering #2024 | Shivtirth, Dadar, Mumbai” (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared in fake social media posts (left) and the original video on YouTube (right):
Exactly two hours into the video, Thackeray can be heard recalling comments made by Rijiju – the Minority Affairs Minister – who said in 2015 that he was a Buddhist and ate beef (archived link).
Thackeray also referred to the case of Aryan Mishra, a 19-year-old man who was killed in September by an armed mob accusing him of beef smuggling.
Authorities in India are often accused of failing to rein in Hindu hardliners, who form gangs of ‘cow vigilantes’ to attack people accused of involvement in cattle slaughter (archived link).
“While Aryan Mishra was murdered on suspicion of cow smuggling, Rijiju says I eat beef, I eat beef – if anyone can do anything to me, do it. But no one said anything about it,” Thackeray said.
“On the one hand you kill innocent people, on the other hand you give a place in the cabinet to someone who says he eats beef.”
Thackeray does not say anywhere in the video that he ate beef.
AFP has previously debunked a fabricated image claiming to show the opposition party leader bowing to Indian National Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi.
