No, UP CM Adityanath Didn’t Say He Will Protect Cows and Not Girls

A photo falsely claims that UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said he will protect cows and not girls.

(Photo altered by The Quint)

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has often courted controversy over his statements, but this time, a viral photo that attributes a statement to him has turned out to be fake.

CLAIM

The photo of a newspaper clipping features Adityanath’s image with the headline: “योगी आदित्यनाथ का फिर गैर जिम्मेदाराना बयान, कहा हमारा काम गाय बचाना है, लड़की नहीं (Another irresponsible statement by Yogi Adityanath, he says our job is to protect cows, not girls)“

An image of a fake clipping that went viral on social media.

TRUE OR FALSE

The claim is false. No mainstream media outlets reported on this purported statement by Adityanath. In fact, this ‘news’ has been doing the rounds since April this year, when a satire website first published it.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

The clipping was shared on social media by a number of people and got a lot of traction.

The source of the claim is a satirical post put up by a website called RHumor Times after the Unnao rape incident in Uttar Pradesh.

While the Rhumor Times website is now defunct (making the original post inaccessible), the website’s Facebook page still features the post that quotes Adityanath as saying, “ ...our job is to protect cows, not girls.”

The story appeared on a Hindi and Marathi news website Mulniwasi Nayak, which says that the story is based on a "viral video and social media reports.”

News website Lallantop reported on the RHumor Times’ article on 18 April.

Snapshot of the Facebook post by RHumor Times.

The Lallantop article has snapshots of the original article and a snippet from the ‘About Us’ section of RHumor Times, which also carries a disclaimer about it being a satire website.

(Snapshot of the original story by RHumor Times)

Snapshot of the ‘About Us’ section of RHumor Times.

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