Recently, a year old video of a man delivering a speech at an anti-CAA protest site in Delhi’s Mustafabad is viral on social media with false and communal captions claiming that he is the owner of ‘Himalaya company’.
In the viral video it shows the man is speaking from a dais. People around him can be seen holding placards with slogans ‘reject CAA, NPR, NRC’ written over them. Speaking in Hindi, the man tells the crowd to shift from Jio numbers to other service providers. He can be heard appealing to the people to ‘break the spine of Reliance’ company.
The 2.20 minute long video is mostly a tirade against Reliance and Patanjali. The viral post is being shared with a Hindi caption that translates to “This Mulla is the owner of Himalaya company. There’s still time, listen to his speech and be alert. They make beauty products from ayurvedic medicines… from Liv52 syrup to Himalaya neem, tulsi and hand sanitiser. Share it in groups and stop buying. They will come on knees. There are many options.” According the viral clip, the man in the video is accusing Patanjali’s Baba Ramdev is giving away the money earned to RSS to buy weapons against Muslims.
On a closer look at the video the logo on the upper right corner of the video is spotted, which reads “Times Express: Voice of Democracy” and the place mentioned is Delhi. Using these as clues, a longer version of the clip on the YouTube channel of “Times Express” was found. The YouTube channel, has 1.74 million subscribers, and had uploaded the 12.11-minute video on January 25, 2020. According to the title and video description, this was advocate Bhanu Pratap Singh addressing protesters on CAA at Mustafabad in Delhi.
The viral portion of the speech can be found 3.23 minutes into the video. Meanwhile, the Citizenship Amendment Act (Bill) protests, also known as CAA Protest or CAB Protest, occurred after the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was enacted by the Government of India on 12 December 2019. The move sparked a widespread national and overseas ongoing protest against the act and its associated proposals of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The protests first began in Assam and spread swiftly in other states such as Delhi, Meghalaya, Arunanchal Pradesh, and Tripura on 4 December 2019. Protests broke out rapidly across the country, although the concerns of the protesters vary.
The CAA amends the Indian citizenship act to accept illegal migrants who are Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist, and Christian from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and who entered India before 2014, following the religious persecutions. The bill does not mention Muslims and other communities who fled from the same or other neighbouring countries. Refugees from Sri Lankan Tamils in India, Rohingyas from Myanmar, and Tibetan refugees are also not mentioned in the bill.The proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be an official record of all legal citizens of India. Individuals would need to provide a prescribed set of documents before a specified cutoff date to be included in it.
On doing a search, it was clear that, the actual founder of Himalaya Drug Company, Mohammed Manal has died in 1986, and none of the members from the present top management of Himalaya resemble the man in the viral video.
Therefore, it is clear that the man criticising Baba Ramdev and Patanjali in the clip is not the owner of Himalaya.
