Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma’s speech at Varanasi varsity shared out of context, falsely linked to RSS

by Anindya Hazra

A video circulating on social media claims that Delhi high court judge Swarana Kanta Sharma rose rapidly in her career due to frequent visits to events linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

During a hearing in the Delhi excise policy case, AAP leader and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal filed a petition seeking Justice Sharma’s recusal, citing a “conflict of interest.” He alleged that she had attended events organised by the Adhivakta Parishad, which he claimed is affiliated with the RSS. Appearing in court on April 14, he said, “Your Honour has attended its events four times. The ideology they follow is something we strongly oppose… This case is political. If Your Honour is attending programmes of a particular ideology, then an apprehension arises in my mind…”

On April 20, Justice Sharma declined to recuse herself from the case. The video is being shared in this context. In it, she is heard saying, “When you first invited me, I was a district court judge. The next year when you invited me, I was the district sessions judge, and now when you have invited me, you had made, Baba had made me a high court Judge. You just keep on inviting me, and (I am sure) Baba will keep on promoting me.”

The video was shared on X by AAP leader Devesh Vishwakarma claiming that Justice Sharma had herself acknowledged that every time she visited RSS-BJP office, she got promoted. His post has garnered over 100,000 views and has been reposted over 2,900 times. (Archive)

The same video was posted by Samajwadi Party leader IP Singh. His post, too, was reshared widely. (Archive)

Another X user named The News Basket shared the video with the same claim.

Fact Check

We extracted several frames from the viral video and ran reverse image searches on Google. This led us to a March 20, 2024 event hosted by the law department of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith. Details of the programme were shared on the department’s official X handle, and Swarankanta Sharma is visible in two of the images.

Her outfit, the banner behind the podium, and sections of the panel all match the frames seen in the viral clip. See the comparison beloiw:

This establishes that the footage is not from any RSS event. Justice Sharma had attended the university as a chief guest to address students on the topic “Relevance of new criminal laws in changing India,” as part of a one-day national workshop.

Further searches on social media led us to Justice Sharma’s full speech from the same event, uploaded on the law department’s Facebook page.

knowledgeable speech given by Justice Swaran kanta sharma delhi high court in one day workshop

Posted by Faculty of law,M.G.kashi vidyapith,varanasi on Monday 20 May 2024

The full video is 6.47-minute long. The segment now going viral is clipped from roughly the 1:25 to 2:10 mark.

In the video, Swarana Kanta Sharma thanks Hindu deity Shiva and remarks that whenever she visits Kashi, she feels blessed with professional success. In that context, she thanks the university for inviting her repeatedly and says: “When you first invited me, I was a district court judge. The next year, I was a district sessions judge, and now when you have invited me, Baba has made me a high court judge. You keep inviting me, and Baba will keep promoting me.”

To sum up, the viral video does not show Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma acknowledging RSS’s role in her promotions. The clip is from a speech at a university in Varanasi, and it is being shared out of context.

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