Clipped video of Uddhav Thackeray shared to claim he 'admitted to eating beef'

What is the claim?

A 43-second video of Uddhav Thackeray, former chief minister of the western Indian state of Maharashtra, is circulating online. The video claims that Thackeray, who is also a leader of the Maharashtra Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) party, eats beef.

The viral video shows the former chief minister saying, “I eat cow meat, I eat beef, do whatever you want to do." In addition, the overlaid text on the clip says, “What else will he say for Muslim votes…” Thackeray’s clip is followed by another video of auto-rickshaw drivers speaking in Marathi and criticizing the Shiv Sena leader.

A post on X (formerly Twitter) features the video with a caption in Marathi, which translates to, “Hindu voters, I eat cow meat, I eat beef, do whatever you want to do—Uddhav Thackeray. Look, Hindus, what is your value for him. Put them at home forever.“

At the time of writing this fact-check, the post had garnered 69,500 views and 1,800 likes. Archived versions of similar posts can be viewed here, here, and here.

Screenshots of the social media posts claiming Uddhav Thackeray said that he eats beef (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

The claim surfaced in the lead-up to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections, set to take place next month on November 20, followed by the counting of votes on November 23. 

However, we found that the video was cropped and shared out of context. Thackeray was actually referring to Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, who allegedly made a statement on beef consumption.

What did we find? 

A Google search led us to an extended version of the video (archived here) on YouTube, published by the news portal Loksatta on October 12, 2024. The video shows Thackeray addressing a rally on the occasion of the Dussehra festival.

On hearing the full video, we discovered that at the 1:15:00 mark, Thackeray was actually talking about Rijiju’s 2015 statement on beef consumption. The Union minister was quoted as saying, “I eat beef, I'm from Arunachal Pradesh... can somebody stop me?” However, Rijiju later stated that the media had ‘misquoted’ his statement. 

Thackeray was referring to Rijiju’s statement while talking about the death of 19-year-old Aryan Mishra, who was reportedly shot dead by suspected cow vigilantes in Faridabad, Haryana, believing he was transporting beef on August 23, 2024.

Thackeray, in the video, says: "A few days ago, in Haryana or some state, a young boy of 22 or 23 years old was followed and shot dead. Why? Because the young boy was hanging out with his friends at night. The gorakshaks (cow protectors) chased him… they stopped the [young boy’s] vehicle and shot him dead. The reason — gorakshaks were skeptical that the boy was carrying beef meat in his vehicle and was smuggling beef meat. But it turned out the boy was Aryan Mishra. Did you see any news about this the next day? No, because a Hindu was killed. But if this young boy was Aryan Khan or some Aryan Sheikh, it would have been big news, saying, ‘Hindutva is in danger, Hindutva is in danger.'"

At 1:17:07 timestamp, he continues, “So, if you kill Aryan Mishra on suspicion of beef smuggling, then what Kiren Rijiju, himself said, ‘I eat cow meat, I eat beef, do whatever you want to do’… I am not saying to shoot him, but why act two-faced?”

This shows that Thackeray’s speech has been edited to remove the part where he refers to Rijiju’s 2015 statement. 

The rally video was also uploaded to the Shiv Sena UBT YouTube channel (archived here). A review of the video showed that the clip, starting at the 2:00:53 seconds timestamp, has been edited out of context to make it seem like Thackeray said he consumes beef.

The verdict 

An edited video of Uddhav Thackeray quoting Kiren Rijiju's statement has been shared with the misleading claim that the former Maharashtra chief minister said that he eats beef.