Old Video Shared to Claim Akhilesh Yadav Insulted Mulayam Singh on Stage

The incident in the viral video took place in 2016 and was widely reported by all media houses.

Fact-Check | A video showing an argument between Samajwadi party leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav is old.

(Photo: The Quint)

An old video showing national president of the Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav arguing with his father and founder of the party Mulayam Singh Yadav on a stage has been revived and shared without proper context.

The claims along with the viral video state that this is a side of Akhilesh that the media will not show. The claim comes as all political parties have started their campaigns for the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

We found that the video dates back to 2016 when there was a feud within the Samajwadi Party with the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and uncle Shivpal Yadav on opposite ends. The infighting was widely reported by various news organisations.

CLAIM

Sharing the video on Facebook, one user said, "ये विडियोज़ मिडिया नहीं दिखा पाई अखिलेश यादव का असली रूप| जो अपने खुद के बाप के साथ पब्लिक में ऐसा व्यवहार कर रहा हो वो सत्ता मिलते ही आम जनता के साथ कैसा ब्यवहार करेगा."

[Translation: The media could not show the real face of Akhilesh Yadav. The one who is behaving like this in public with his own father, how will he behave with the general public as soon as he gets power?]

An archive of the post can be found here.

The claim was widely shared on both Facebook and Twitter, archives of which can be found here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We conducted a keyword search for "Akhilesh and Mulayam fight on stage" and found the same video being shared in January 2017.

A video report published on 3 January 2017 by Hindi news organisation Dainik Bhaskar carried the viral video.

Towards the end of the video, the narrator mentions that viral video was from 24 October 2016 and also says that the video is from the time when there was infighting in the party.

We found the same video published on ABP News' website. The report also said that the incident took place on 24 October 2016 and went on to explain the reason for the argument.

We looked for more details of the incident from 24 October 2016 and found several news reports that carried the news about an argument that ensued between Mulayam's younger brother Shivpal Yadav and Akhilesh.

A video published by NDTV on 24 October 2016 talked about the Shivpal-Akhilesh fight in detail. The video showed Shivpal calling Akhilesh a liar after grabbing the mic from him. Akhilesh, on the other hand, accused Shivpal of planting stories against him and creating a rift between him and his father.

The on-stage fight was reported by other news organisations as well.

Evidently, an old video is being shared without proper context ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections to create a misleading narrative.

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