Did WB CM Mamata Banerjee Say Kazi Nazrul Islam Wrote ‘The Mahabharata’?

We found that the video was clipped and was being shared out-of-context to take a dig at the leader.

Fact-Check | The video is clipped and is being shared with a misleading context.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is being shared on the internet to take a dig at the leader. In the video, Banerjee could be heard saying, "Kazi Nazrul wrote Mahabharata".

Who shared the claim?: Media outlets such as Zee News, Live Hindustan, Lokmat Hindi, and Republic World shared the claim in their reports. Right wing propaganda outlet OpIndia, too, shared it.

• Bharatiya Janata Party national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla shared the video on his official X (formerly Twitter) account.

  (Swipe right to view all the claims.)

An archive of the post can be found here.

An archive of the post can be found here.

An archive of the post can be found here.

An archive of the post can be found here.

An archive of the post can be found here.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)

Why is the claim being shared?: The claim comes after Banerjee's series of gaffes, where she said that Indira Gandhi went to the moon and mixed up astronaut Rakesh Sharma's name with filmmaker Rakesh Roshan.

Are these claims true?: No, the video is clipped and is being shared with a misleading context.

• Banerjee was speaking on the foundation day of Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), and was seen asking people to read the works of several people.

• This is where Banerjee mentioned The Mahabharata; however, she took a small pause before continuing to talk about a quote from poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.

How did we find out?: On going through the official social media platforms of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC or TMC), we found a longer version of the video uploaded on its YouTube channel.

• The live stream of Banerjee's speech on the occasion of TMCP Foundation day was available on the channel.

• At around the 2:51:40 timestamp, she could be heard saying, "I am telling you. Read and learn about Rabindranath, read and learn about Vivekananda, read and learn about Nazrul, read and learn about Birsa Munda, read and learn about Raghunath Murmu, read and learn about Matua Thakur, read and learn about Rajbanshi's Panchanan Burma….read it well… Mahabharat...".

This is where Banerjee takes a small pause and then continues saying, "Nazrul Islam wrote, "Ved, Vedanta…Quran, Puran, Ved, Vedanta, Bible, Tripitaka, Granth Saheb, Zend-Avesta...read as much as you can…"."

• The CM's quote about Nazrul was from one his poems named Samyavadi, also known as Of Equality in English.

• We found the full translated text of the poem in a book titled 'Rebel and Other Poems, which is available on Google Books.

The text is available on page 37 of the book.

(Source: Google Books/Screenshot)

Conclusion: A clipped video of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is being shared to falsely claim that she called Kazi Nazrul Islam the writer of The Mahabharata.

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