A post with photos containing the statements of few celebrities on Modi and BJP is widely being shared on Facebook. Let’s try to check whether the celebrities actually said the words attributed to them in the post.
Claim: If Modi becomes the Prime Minister of India, some celebrities like Shah Rukh, Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi said that they will leave India; Mamata Banerjee said she will commit suicide.
Fact: None of them said that they will leave India or commit suicide if Modi becomes the PM of India. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When searched for the Shah Rukh’s statements, given in the post, on Google, it was found that the same statements were being attributed to him for the past five years. A Times of India article published in 2014 can be found in the search results. It contains the tweet of Shah Rukh Khan rubbishing the fake tweet being circulated on his name.
Similar statements were attributed to Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi. When searched on Google with keywords “Shabana Azmi to leave India”, an Economic Times article on this issue can be found in the search results. The article contains the tweet of Shabana Azmi in which she says the statements are ‘pure fabrication’. Also, Javed Akhtar in a conversation with Boom Live refuted the claims that he said he will leave India if Modi wins.
. "मोदी अगर प्रधानमंत्री बन गए तो देश छोड़ दूँगी"शबाना आज़मी
— Azmi Shabana (@AzmiShabana) May 11, 2019
This is PURE FABRICATION. Ive never said this and i have no intentions of leaving the country. This is where I was born and this is where Ill die.I hve nothing but contempt for The Fake News Brigade.
The post also contains an image of Mamata Banerjee with a statement: “I will commit suicide if Modi wins again”. When the statement was searched on Google, no credible sources supporting the claim were found. Only news found similar to the post was where Mamata said, “Adolf Hitler would have committed suicide if he witnessed Modi’s activities”. So, the statements attributed to Mamata were not said by her.
When searched for the statements attributed to Navjot Singh Sidhu on Google, it was found that he actually said that he will quit politics if Rahul Gandhi loses in Amethi. He made these statements in April 2019, a month before the results. It is known that Rahul Gandhi had lost the Amethi seat.
To sum it up, none of them said that they will leave India or commit suicide if Modi wins. Sidhu said he will quit politics if Rahul loses.
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