Siddaramaiah did not say “want to be reborn as a Muslim”; clipped video falsely viral

A 20-second clip featuring Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah is being widely shared on social media. In the clip, the Karnataka CM can be heard delivering a speech in Kannada. It is claimed the Congress leader mentioned in his speech that he wished to be reborn as a Muslim in his next life.

X (formerly Twitter) user Murali Purshotham (@MurariMurali3) shared the above-mentioned clip on March 11 with a caption in Kannada that can be translated as: “Why wait for the next life, convert now itself🙏”. The tweet received over 18,000 views and has been retweeted over 100 times. (Archive)

ಮುಂದಿನ ಜನ್ಮ ಯಾಕೆ ಇವಾಗ್ಲೇ ಕನ್ವರ್ಟ್ ಆಗಿ,🙏 pic.twitter.com/LhruF22ikk

— Murali Purshotham (@MurariMurali3) March 11, 2024

Right Wing influencer Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) also shared the same video and mentioned in the caption: “Siddaramaiah wants to be born as Muslim in his next birth”. Several other users further quote-tweeted his tweet, amplifying the claim. The tweet has now been deleted.

Readers should note that Rishi Bagree has shared and amplified misinformation several times in the past.

Several other users also shared the same video with similar captions. Below are a few instances.

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Fact Check

We ran a relevant keyword search on YouTube which led us to a 29.45-minute-long YouTube video posted by Kannada media outlet YOYO TV Kannada where Siddaramaiah’s entire speech was recorded. At the 13:36 mark in the speech, the viral section begins. The viral part of the speech can be translated as: “If at all there is a concept of Rebirth I would like to be born as a Muslim”. If one goes back just a few seconds, at the 13:26 mark, Siddaramaiah can be heard taking the name of former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader Deve Gowda.

At the 12th minute, the Karnataka CM says: “They (JDS) didn’t come to power on their own. In 2018, our leaders went to his (Kumaraswamy’s) house and told him he should become the chief minister and we made him the chief minsiter. That is because we didn’t want the communal BJP to come to power. Later, who broke their party? Mr. Yeddyurappa. BJP did Operation Kamala and 17 MLAs were given money and they removed Kumaraswamy as CM.

And now these two have joined hands together. The party (BJP) who threw them out of power… They’ve (JDS) gone and made alliances with the same party again.

The same Devegowda had said, ‘I will not join BJP for whatever reason.. if at all there is a concept of Rebirth I would like to be born as a Muslim. The reason is that the BJP is a communal party. We have never supported BJP.'”

Further, we found a news report by the Hindustan Times from March 11. The title of the report said: “Deve Gowda aligned with BJP for survival, says Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah”. The report mentioned that the Karnataka CM had criticized former Prime Minister Deve Gowda for aligning with the BJP while delivering a speech at the teachers’ thanksgiving meeting at Kangeri on March 10. The report also mentioned Siddaramaiah quoting Deve Gowda that the latter once said that he wanted to be born as a Muslim in his next life and was always against the BJP.

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The same was reported by several other outlets in the past two days.

We also came across a series of tweets made by the Karnataka CM on March 11. In the last tweet of the four-tweet series he mentioned: “Former chief minister Deve Gowda, who had declared that he would be born as a Muslim in the next birth, is now singing praises of BJP and Narendra Modi, as he joins them. How can you trust those who change their stance so easily?

Yesterday’s Vidhana Parishad elections are said to be an indicator of the Lok Sabha elections to come, according to HD Kumaraswamy. In those elections, defeating the BJP-JDS alliance, Congress candidate Puttanna emerged victorious. Therefore, as per HD Kumaraswamy’s words, the BJP-JDS alliance will face defeat even in the Lok Sabha elections. Congress will win.”

ಮುಂದಿನ ಜನ್ಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಸ್ಲಿಂ ಆಗಿ ಜನಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ ಎಂದಿದ್ದ ಮಾಜಿ ಪ್ರಧಾನಿ ದೇವೇಗೌಡರು ಈಗ @BJP4India ಜೊತೆ ಸೇರಿಕೊಂಡು ಬಿಜೆಪಿ ಮತ್ತು @narendramodi ಅವರನ್ನು ಹಾಡಿ ಹೊಗಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ದ್ವಂದ್ವ ಹೇಳಿಕೆ ನೀಡುವ ಇವರನ್ನು ಹೇಗೆ ನಂಬುತ್ತೀರಿ?

ಮೊನ್ನೆ ನಡೆದ ವಿಧಾನ‌ಪರಿಷತ್ ಚುನಾವಣೆಯು ನಾಳೆ ಬರಲಿರುವ ಲೋಕಸಭಾ ಚುನಾವಣೆಯ ದಿಕ್ಸೂಚಿ…

— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) March 11, 2024

We tried to find out more details on the said remark by HD Deve Gowda, but could not find any. We reached out to Sugata Srinivasaraju, the author of the former PM’s biography, “Furrows In A Field: The Unexplored Life of H D Deve Gowda.” He also could not confirm if the ex-PM had made such a remark. Consequently, there is no mention of it in his book.

However, the above findings make it clear that the viral clip of the Karnataka CM has been edited and shared out of context. The part of Siddaramaiah’s speech that is being shared without context is actually the Congress leader claiming that former Prime Minister Deve Gowda had made the statement that he wanted to be reborn as a Muslim. Alt News can not independently confirm if Deve Gowda had indeed said so.