No, President Droupadi Murmu did not talk about justice to protesting wrestlers - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 7, 2023
A video featuring President Droupadi Murmu discussing the importance of ensuring justice is circulating with a claim attributing her words to the wrestler’s protest. Sharing the video, a post claims that it marks the first occasion where Droupadi Murmu openly advocates for justice for women wrestlers. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of President Droupadi Murmu, supporting protesting wrestlers.
Fact: The viral excerpt is from President Murmu’s speech during the inauguration of Jharkhand’s new High Court on 24 May 2023. On this occation, she spoke about ensuring justice to the public. She urged the government and the Chief Justice of India to ensure implementation of court orders so that people get justice in the true sense. These comments of Murmu are falsely attributed to the wrestler’s protest. However, throughout her speech, she did not address the issue of the wrestlers’ protests. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon noticing the presence of the ‘News 24’ logo in the viral video, we conducted a search on the News 24 YouTube channel and discovered the complete footage of Murmu’s speech, from which the viral excerpt was extracted.
During the inauguration of Jharkhand’s new High Court on 24 May 2023, she delivered a speech emphasizing the importance of justice for the public. However, throughout her speech, she did not address the issue of the wrestlers’ protests.
Further, multiple news agencies reported the President’s speech (here & here). According to one such report, ‘President Droupadi Murmu urged the government and the Chief Justice of India to ensure implementation of court orders so that people get justice in the true sense. Even after getting a favorable verdict, people’s happiness is sometimes short-lived, as the court orders are not implemented sometimes.’
Her speech is available on the President’s official YouTube channel, and at no point during her speech, she spoke about wrestlers’ protests. Thus, it is evident that Murmu’s comments were taken out of context and attributed to the wrestlers’ protests.
To sum it up, President Droupadi Murmu did not talk about justice to protesting wrestlers.