A newspaper clipping is viral on social media in which a report claims that Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah stated that he did not need the votes of Hindus and that the votes of Muslims would be sufficient for him to secure a victory in the elections. Additionally, the clipping alleges that the Congress party did not believe in Hinduism and it did not bother them if the BJP criticized them for Muslim appeasement politics.
The Facebook handle of the BJP Belagavi rural district shared the image with the caption stating that this was appeasement politics.
Several handles belonging to BJP supporters shared the newspaper clipping with the same claim on X.
It was also posted on YouTube in Kannada.
Fact Check
According to 2011 Census data, Hindus constituted 83% of Karnataka’s total population, while Muslims made up only 11%. Therefore, it seems highly unlikely for any party or chief minister to claim that they did not need the votes of the majority Hindu population.
We have provided a Google translation of this newspaper clipping below. The claim made in the sub-head of the report is incorrect. In March, Alt News debunked the viral claim that Siddaramaiah had stated that he wanted to be born as a Muslim in his next life. The fact check can be found here.
When we searched for keywords related to this issue on Google, we found no articles on such claims apparently made by the Karnataka chief minister. Since this is a sensitive issue, if Siddaramaiah had indeed made such a statement, it would have been a major issue not only in the state but also nationally.
A reverse image search of the viral picture on Google led us to a report on the First India website from June 2, 2023. According to this report, before a cabinet meeting, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah met senior officials to implement five guarantees (Griha Jyoti, Anna Bhagya, Griha Lakshmi, Sakhi Shakti, and Yuva Nidhi). Dainik Bhaskar also published this news with the same image on June 2, 2023.
We also found that Siddaramaiah had dismissed the viral news as fake, stating that BJP-JDS supporters were behind this with a view to stirring up communal tension. The Karnataka chief minister also stated that he had filed a police complaint regarding the doctored image.
The miscreants supported by the unholy alliance of BJP-JDS have fabricated a piece of disinformation mimicking a report from the Kannada newspaper.This fake news is loaded with content that stirs up communal tensions and has been widely disseminated across social media platforms.… pic.twitter.com/lHh0BpqTGC
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) April 10, 2024
In conclusion, it is clear that many BJP supporters shared a fake newspaper clip falsely claiming that Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah had said he did not need Hindu votes, as Muslim votes were sufficient for him to win.
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