Fake Newspaper Clipping of Uddhav Thackeray Apologising for 1992 Riots Viral

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitesh Rane shared this fake news clipping on his official X and Instagram handles.

A Hindi newspaper clipping, allegedly of the Rashtriya Ujala, featuring former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray is being shared on social media platforms.

The clipping notes, "It was a mistake to join the 1992 riots, sorry - Uddhav Thackeray" (translated from Hindi to English). The byline with the article was "Pranav Dogra."

What did the report say?: The purported report stated that Thackeray had apologised to Muslim leaders for the riots.

• It also mentioned that the politician had done this to appease the Muslim voters in the state as his party "lagged" behind in Hindu areas.

• The report also noted that Shiv Sainiks were surprised that Thackeray went against his father (Bal Thackeray) for votes.

The claim: Those sharing wrote, "Till yesterday, he was boasting that Shiv Sena saved Mumbai from the 1992 riots, but today Uddhav Thackeray is seen apologising to the Muslim community for the same riots." (sic.)

• This post was shared by Bharatiya Janata Party's Nitesh Rane on his official X and Instagram handles.

This post recorded 181.4K views at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as the clipping is fake.

• Rashtriya Ujala has denied publishing such an article and have called it "fake."

• Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) has also dismissed the claim.

What we found: At first, we ran a keyword search using the headline of the viral clipping, however, we did not find any credible source to prove the validity of the article.

• We, then, checked the website and social media pages of the newspaper Rashtriya Ujala, however we did not come across any such article.

• We, then, found a post by the newspaper on Facebook. It stated, "Everyone is informed that some fake news clippings are being telecasted on social media under the name of National Ujala newspaper. It is clear that reporters Pranav Dogra and Ankit Pathak have no connection with our newspaper."

More inputs by the publication: Jyoti Narain, the owner of the publication confirmed to The Quint that they did not have any "connection to this fabricated news." They also told us that a legal action would be initiated against individuals creating and spreading the clipping.

We also checked the social media pages of Shiv Sena (UBT) and found a post on Instagram which dismissed the claim and called it "fake."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shivsena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (@shivsena)

Conclusion: A fake newspaper clipping stating that Thackeray apologised for the 1992 riots went viral on social media.

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