Digvijaya Singh's Speech, Quoting Savarkar From His Book, Shared Out of Context

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh didn't say 'there is no problem in eating beef'.

A short clip of Congress leader Digvijaya Singh where he can be heard saying that "the cow is such an animal which rolls around in its own mal (dirt), so how can it be our mother, and there should be no problem in consuming beef" is being circulated on social media, claiming that the words are his own.

However, we found that in the full video, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister was speaking about Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (also known as Veer Savarkar), who, according to Singh, had written in his book that 'Hinduism has no relation to the Hindutva, and that there should be no problem in consuming cow meat'.

CLAIM

The 13-second clip is being circulated on social media with the claim in Hindi that reads, "कांग्रेस नेता दिग्विजय सिंह कहते है गाय हमारी माता नही और गौ मांस खाना बुरा नही है।"

[Translation: Congress leader Digvijaya Singh says that cow is not our mother and consuming beef is not bad.]

Several social media users have shared the video along with similar claims and the archived links can be seen here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We looked for news reports and conducted a keyword search for the same.

In the search results, we found a video by news agency ANI, published on its Twitter page, which carried the longer version of the video posted on 25 December where one can clearly understand that Digvijaya was attributing it to Savarkar.

#WATCH | Veer Savarkar in his book has written that the Hindu religion doesn't have any relation with Hindutva. He also wrote that cow... can't be our mother and there is no problem in eating cow beef: Congress leader Digvijaya Singh in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal pic.twitter.com/wYsk4YXmDJ

— ANI (@ANI) December 25, 2021

According to a report by The Print, he had made the statements at the 'Jan Jagran Abhiyan' event in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on 25 December.

The Congress launched the 'Jan Jagran Abhiyan' on 14 November, a 15-day nationwide campaign, through which the Congress aims to highlight the "anti-people" policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led-Central government, highlighting issue of inflation in the country.

Next, we searched for the video on the official Facebook page of Digvijaya Singh and found it there, posted on 25 December.

The caption read that 'Live: Interactive session with trainers and trainees at a one-day training camp under Jan Jagran Abhiyan in Bhopal'.

At the start of his speech, Singh says that Congress has a fight with the ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

In the video, he can be heard saying, "India is a diverse country. This is a land where some Hindus also consume beef, and question where is it written that beef shouldn't be consumed. There are other Hindus who are against killings of cow."

He goes on, "Savarkar in his own book has written that Hindu religion has no connection with Hindutva. It is also written that cow is such an animal which rolls around in its own mal (dirt), so how can it be our mata (mother), and there should be no problem in consuming beef. These are the words of Savarkar, who is BJP and RSS' special ideologue."

(The statement can be heard from 6:52-7:59 minutes.)

Clearly, an edited part of a clip is being circulated on social media claiming that it is Digvijaya Singh who had said that 'there is no problem in eating beef'.

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