A video of Delhi Education Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi’s speech during the school inauguration is being shared on social media (here, here, and here) claiming that she uttered “Jai Shri Ram” during a school inauguration in Delhi and later apologized as some Muslim men objected to it, Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Delhi Education Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi raised the “Jai Shri Ram” slogan during a school inauguration in Delhi and later apologized as some Muslim men objected to it.
Fact: The school was inaugurated in Shri Ram Colony, which is located near Khajuri Khas Chowk. Atishi didn’t mention Shri Ram Colony at first. When locals expressed their unhappiness about it, she corrected herself and apologized. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On performing a relevant keyword search regarding the claim, we found a press release issued by Aam Admi Party on 9 March 2024. It indicated that the Kejriwal government inaugurated two government schools in the Shriram Colony of Northeast Delhi. During this, Education Minister Atishi said that this school of Shri Ram Colony is one of the best schools in Delhi.
Taking this clue we further searched and found a full video of the school inauguration program published by the directorate of education, GNCT of Delhi on YouTube. From the video, we found that the school was inaugurated in Shri Ram Colony, which is located near Khajuri Khas Chowk, Delhi. On investigating the full video, we found that at 32:14 timestamp Atishi started her speech with slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Vande Mataram, and Inquilab Zindabad. Later at 40:30 timestamp, it’s evident that Atishi was discussing the inauguration of the Khajuri Khas school.
During the speech, some attendees raised objections when Atishi mentioned Khajuri Khas school. When Atishi requested them to sit, Municipal councillor Mohammad Amil Malik approached Atishi from behind the stage and suggested, “This is the school of Shri Ram Colony, say Shri Ram Colony.” In response, Atishi apologized to the residents of Shriram Colony, stating, “I would like to apologize to the residents of Shriram Colony; the school of Shriram Colony is where the children of Shriram Colony, Khajuri Khas, Karawal Nagar, and Sonia Vihar also study.” There is no evidence of her chanting “Jai Shri Ram” in the entire video.
To sum up, the viral video alleging that AAP leader Atishi apologized for chanting the “Jai Shri Ram” slogan is False.
