The screenshot of a now-deleted social media post by former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat wishing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank's daughter for her wedding has gone viral to claim that she married a person from the Muslim community.
However, we found that the claim is false. On the day Rawat attended Dr Shreyasi Nishank's wedding, he also attended a Muslim individual's wedding. Rawat used one social media post to share photographs and congratulate both the families and that created the initial confusion.
Rawat later deleted his posts and shared the photos in two different posts to wish each family separately. Moreover, we found that Shreyasi is married to Major Deval Bajpai.
CLAIM
People shared Rawat's social media post which was caption, "कल #देहरादून में उत्तराखंड के पूर्व मुख्यमंत्री @DrRPNishank जी की पुत्री व मोहम्मद नौशाद जी के पुत्र के विवाह समारोह में सम्मिलित हुआ और वर-वधूओं को आशीर्वाद दिया एवं श्री निशंक जी/नौशाद जी को हार्दिक बधाई एवं शुभकामनाएं दी।"
[Translation: Yesterday I attended the wedding ceremonies of the daughter of former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Dr R P Nishank ji and son of Mohammad Naushad ji in Dehradun and blessed the brides and grooms and conveyed hearty congratulations and best wishes to Shri Nishank ji/Naushad ji.]
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
Those sharing screenshot took a dig at the BJP leader and said, "संघी मुसलमानों से घृणा भी करते और #दामाद भी बनाते है।" [Sangh followers hate Muslims but also marry their daughters to Muslims.]
Several other people shared the screenshot on Facebook and Twitter, archives of some of which can be found here and here. We also found that the same claim was being shared in November 2021.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We conducted a keyword search for Dr Shreyasi's wedding in Hindi and found a news report by Hindi newspaper Amar Ujala talking about her wedding and the controversy that arose due to Rawat's Facebook post.
The article said that Rawat attended two weddings on Monday, 15 November 2021, but made a single post about both the events leading to the confusion. Some BJP members accused Rawat of indulging in dirty politics, the report added.
Rawat subsequently deleted the Facebook post and shared the photos in two separate posts on 17 November 2021 wishing Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal and Muhammad Naushad for the weddings of their respective children.
A fact-check published by Aaj Tak, found an archived version of the original tweet made by Rawat on 16 November 2021, which has now been deleted.
We looked for the name of Dr Shreyasi's husband and found a Dainik Jagran report that identified the groom as Major Deval Bajpai.
Evidently, an old post was shared to falsely claim that Dr Shreyasi had married a person from the Muslim community. The poorly worded social media post by Rawat was shared by social media users to take a dig at Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)