Old Video of Azam Khan Calling 'Lord Ram His Ideal' Shared as Recent

This speech was given by Azam Khan in 2017 and a 30 second clip is being shared with a misleading context.

A video showing Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan calling Lord Krishna and Lord Rama his ideal, is doing the rounds on social media.

The claim states that the SP leader made this statement after spending 27 months in jail.

Khan, who was in Sitapur jail in connection with several cases, including a case of land grabbing, was granted interim bail on 19 May 2022.

However, the video dates back to 2017 when Khan took at dig at prime minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, questioning them if they would ever consider the Prophet, their ideal.

CLAIM

The caption with the viral video states that the video shows Khan talking about his changed views after being in jail for 27 months.

Similar claims can be seen here, here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On conducting a search using 'Azam Khan said Lord Krishna and Ram are his ideals' as the keywords in Hindi, we came across several news reports from 2017.

A report by Hindi daily Amar Ujala from 6 October 2017 stated that Khan took a dig at Modi and Adityanath and asked them if they will consider the Prophet their ideal. It also added that he said that he considers Hindu deities, Krishna and Ram, his ideal.

We found similar reports by Hindi news media outlets ABP Live and Dainik Bhaskar.

Taking a cue from this, we looked for Khan's video on YouTube and found it on the official channel of the Samajwadi Party. This was posted on 7 October 2017.

The viral video begins at around 15 minutes and 13 seconds.

In his speech, Khan starts talking about god and his messengers, in various religions. He takes a dig at Yogi and Modi to read history about the Mughal emperors too.

"The Quran and the Prophet have said not to insult anyone's religious men because Allah sent 1,20,000 prophets and all the great men of their time. They may have been a prophet, a messenger of Allah, of their time. Yogi ji, Mughal is not our ideal, but Ram and Krishna are our ideals. But Yogi ji, India's rest of the population wants to know from you whether the Prophet Muhammed and Jesus Christ are your ideals or not."

Azam Khan, Senior leader of SP

Clearly, an old video of Khan is being shared with a false context.

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