A video is going viral on social media showing Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut talk about former Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's tomb.
Users are claiming that Raut referred to the graves of Aurangzeb and Afzal Khan as ‘Symbols of valour’.
This X (formerly Twitter) account of '@MeghUpdates' often shares misinformation online and this post had garnered over 348.5K views at the time of writing this story.
(Archives of similar claims can be seen here, here and here.)
What's the truth?: This claim is misleading and the video is being shared out of context.
Raut did not call the graves of Aurangzeb and Afzal Khan as ‘Symbols of valour’.
Instead, he is actually describing Shivaji’s courage and the Maratha's bravery.
How did we find out the truth?: We performed a relevant keyword search on Google, which led us to a longer version of the same video along with other reports about this.
This was shared by Times Now on 17 March, title stated, "Row Over Aurangzeb's Tomb: Sanjay Raut Makes Big Statement, Says 'Can't Break Aurangzeb's Tomb...'.
The video shows Raut's complete statement, in which he compares Aurangzeb's tomb to the bravery and 'valour' displayed by the Marathas who fought against Aurangzeb.
He does not speak in support of the Mughal emperor in the entire video.
During the press conference, a reporter asks Raut about the protest against Aurangzeb's tomb, to which he replies in Marathi, "Who is the ruling government in India and Maharashtra? Is it only their right? Modi and Fadnavis are from the violent Hindutva ideology. Who has stopped them from demolishing the tomb? Their administration should do it then, why are you troubling the people, ask the RSS to put out a demand, the Bajrang Dal and VHP are their cubs. You should read today's editorial in Saamana. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj showed such valour to the country and the memorial of that is Aurangzeb's tomb. Before attacking Maharashtra, we tell them to go to Aurangzeb's tomb and see what happened to him. People who are unaware of history do all this (call for the demolition of the tomb)."
He then talks about Shivaji defeating Afzal Khan, a general who served the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur Sultanate in the 1600s.
He further says, which can be seen in the viral video, "Shivaji Maharaj's fight was against Aurangzeb and the Mughals. Aurangzeb's is in Maharashtra, I believe this is a symbol of valour for the Marathas. The future generation should know how Shivaji Maharaj and Marathas fought against them, and ultimately, he could not gain victory, and his tomb had to be made in Maharashtra."
Further, we also did not find any public statement or social media post made by Raut in support of Aurangzeb, as claimed.
What's the controversy about?: Aurangzeb’s tomb is located in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) Maharashtra, and has recently become the centre of a political controversy because there were demands of its removal.
Several such claims are floating around online after violence broke out between two communities in Nagpur over this dispute.
This discussion also comes after Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis blamed the Vicky Kaushal-starrer 'Chhaava' for igniting anger in people against Aurangzeb.
Conclusion: A misleading claim is going viral online where users are sharing a video without context and claiming that Sanjay Raut referred to the Aurangzeb's grave as ‘Symbols of valour’.
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