CLAIM
A Twitter user shared a video of a woman’s speech on Kashmir and called her the granddaughter of Maharaja Hari Singh, the last ruling Maharaja (prince) of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The user, according to his social media bio, hails from Pakistan and is a columnist and the joint secretary of the Punjab Union of Journalists.
The tweet said “#Khalistan Brilliantly explained. Very interesting perspective from the horses mouth! Grand daughter of Maharaja Hari Singh, last Dogra sikh ruler of Jammu and Kashmir👇🏿👇🏿”
The woman in the video, who the user called Hari Singh's granddaughter, talked about the Instrument of Accession to India was signed by the then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Narendra Modi-led NDA government effectively revoked Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
The woman in the video is not the granddaughter of Maharaja Hari Singh.
Few hours after the tweet, grandson of Maharaja and Indian National Congress leader, Vikramaditya Singh tweeted denying the claims made by the user.
“Grand daughter of Maharaja Hari Singh Ji of Jammu & Kashmir is my sister, Dr. Jyotsna Singh. This is NOT her. Kindly ignore this fake/malicious video (sic),” he said in the tweet.
Dr Jyotsna Singh is the granddaughter of the last ruler of the erstwhile state.
WHO IS IN THE VIDEO?
The woman in the video is Professor Hameedah Nayeem of Kashmir University.
The 45-second clip tweeted by the user has been taken out from her lecture during an event at the Aligarh Muslim University organised by its Students’ Union in April 2018.
On conducting a Google image search, The Quint found a longer version of the video on YouTube. The video was uploaded by ‘Janptra Media’ and ‘Kashmiriat Vlog’.
She can be heard saying the same thing as in the tweeted video at around 26 minutes and 13 seconds.
At around 18:00 minutes, members of AMUSU can be seen. The then AMUSU President Maskoor Ahmad Usmani had also shared posts and pictures from the event on his Facebook page.
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