A screenshot of a news article is going viral on social media, including WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter. In the viral post, it is claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has told Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) cadres that he will change Kashmir demography in the next four years. The viral post appears to be a screenshot of a news article of the Hindustan Times. Neeraj Chauhan, a senior journalist is said to be the author of the article.
The image has been circulating on WhatsApp groups and Twitter. When the International Business Times, India came across the post, it raised our eyebrows. Even though Amit Shah belongs to the BJP, a hard-line Hindu nationalist party whose politics revolves around religion, it was a highly controversial statement from a national leader, who also happens to be the Home Minister of India. We decided to fact-check the claim and a team of IBTimes fact-checkers started their investigation.
The Claim
"How can we allow one state to have Muslim majority population when whole of India is Hindu majority, we will change Kashmir demography in just 4 years, Amit Shah tells VHP cadres." This was the headline of the news article. It further claimed that the Narendra Modi government will soon start allocating plots (in Kashmir) in the name of industries and commercial establishments.
Our investigation
First of all, we opened the Hindustan Times website and searched the claimed article which was said to be published on April 1, 2020. We didn't find any such article on their website. We then searched the articles written by Neeraj Chouhan on April 1. "Amit Shah reworks Kashmir's domicile law, includes residents for 15 yrs" was the headline of the article by Neeraj. So, it became clear that Hindustan Times didn't publish the article claimed in the viral post.
A FAKE news is doing rounds on whatsapp with my name. This isn’t my story or on HT website. Somebody has edited this and spreading it. This is absolutely FAKE. Request all fact-checkers to please see. @free_thinker @AltNews @boomlive_in @syednazakat @smhoaxslayer @jencyjac pic.twitter.com/k3bBIdWv9w
— Neeraj Chauhan (@neerajwriting) April 2, 2020
We still wanted cross-check so we visited Neeraj's official Twitter handle. Usually, journalists share their bylines stories on Twitter. This is where we reached a conclusion. Neeraj had shared this viral image with a clarification that it was falsely being attributed to him and that he has not written any such article. He also clarified that his organisation has also not published any such news report. So the claim in the viral image turned out to be a clear case of FAKE NEWS.
