With the Madhya Pradesh state assembly general elections on the horizon, a video featuring Congress leader Digvijaya Singh discussing beef has gone viral on various social media platforms. In this video, Digvijay Singh is heard saying in Hindi, a loose translation of which is, ‘The cow is an animal that wallows in its own filth, so how can it be considered our mother, and there should be no issue with consuming beef.’ In this article, we verify the video’s authenticity as shared in the post.
Claim: Video of Digvijaya Singh saying there should be no issue with consuming beef.
Fact: In the original speech, Digvijaya Singh was referring to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, stating that Savarkar had written in his book that ‘Hinduism has no relation to Hindutva, and there should be no problem with consuming cow meat.’ However, the portion of the speech where Singh referred to Savarkar has been omitted, and only the part about beef is being shared with the comments falsely attributed to him. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
While the viral clip features former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh making these statements, the full-length original video reveals that Digvijaya Singh was referring to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. According to Singh, Savarkar had written in his book that ‘Hinduism has no connection to Hindutva, and there should be no issue with consuming cow meat’.
A Google search using pertinent keywords led us to a news report published on 25 December 2021, which contained identical visuals (here). According to this report, it is clear that Digvijaya Singh was ascribing these statements to the Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
Numerous media outlets have previously covered Digvijaya Singh’s remarks during that time. According to these reports, Digvijaya Singh made these statements during a one-day interactive session as part of the Jan Jagran Abhiyan in Bhopal (here, here & here). In one of these reports, Digvijaya Singh can be heard saying, ‘Veer Savarkar had written in his book that Hinduism and Hindutva are unrelated, and he also wrote that a cow is an animal that wallows in its own excrement; how can she be considered a mother? There’s nothing wrong with consuming beef. This is what Savarkar himself stated.’
Additionally, the currently viral video includes another segment in which Digvijaya Singh is heard saying in Hindi, that roughly translates to, ‘people wearing saffron clothes are selling churan (herbal mixture), people are wearing saffron clothes and committing rapes, rapes are happening inside temples.’
While Digvijaya Singh did make these comments, it’s important to note that these remarks were not recent; the video dates back to September 2019. Conducting a Google search with pertinent keywords led us to news reports documenting these comments (here, here & here).
As per these comments, while addressing a conclave of Hindu seers in Bhopal, Digvijay says “A person after parting ways with his family becomes a sadhu (monk)… and turns to spirituality. Today, people wearing saffron clothes are selling churan (herbal mixture), people are wearing saffron clothes and committing rapes, and rapes are happening inside temples, Is this our religion? Those who have defamed our Sanatan Dharma (ancient religion), not even God will forgive them.”
Hence, these reports clearly establish that Digvijaya Singh’s statements are being shared out of context, with false attribution.
To summarize, old visuals of Digvijaya Singh quoting Savarkar are being shared out of context.
