No, Indian Home Minister Shah did not say BJP will 'scrap SC, ST, OBC reservations'

What is the claim?

A video featuring Indian Home Minister Amit Shah has been circulating widely on social media during the 2024 general elections. In the video, Shah is heard stating, “If the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) forms the government, we will end the unconstitutional SC, ST, and OBC reservations (translated from Hindi).” 

This has led to criticism from social media users who accuse the Modi-led BJP government of being against reservations for minority communities such as SC, ST, and OBC. The claim was shared by several social media accounts of the Congress, like the Telangana and Jharkhand units of the party. 

A social media user posted the viral video on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption, “If BJP forms the government, it will end the reservation for OBC, SC, ST: Amit Shah. It will be interesting to see how the OBC, SC, and ST classes respond to this (translated from Hindi).” Archives of the post can be accessed here, while other such posts can be viewed here, here, here, and here. 

Screenshot of the viral post. (Source: X/ Screenshot)

However, the viral video is an edited version. In the original video, Shah states that unconstitutional reservations for the Muslim community will be stopped.

How did we verify this?

The logo of V6 News, a Telugu news TV channel, is visible in the bottom left-hand corner of the viral video. We located a video (archive) of Shah’s speech, uploaded on the news portal's YouTube channel on April 23, 2023, titled “Union Minister Amit Shah Comments on Muslim Reservations…..”

At the 2:38 minute timestamp in the video, Shah is heard saying, “If the Bharatiya Janata Party forms the government, we will end the unconstitutional Muslim reservation. This right belongs to the SC, ST, and OBC of Telangana. They will receive that right, and we will end Muslim reservation (translated from Hindi).”

This confirms that the viral video has been edited. In the original video, Shah stated the intention to end unconstitutional reservations for Muslims. In the viral video, the segment where he says the word “Muslim” has been edited out and replaced with "SC, ST, and OBC."

We also found this speech's original video (archive), which was live-streamed on Shah’s official YouTube channel on April 23, 2023. In this video, he addresses a public gathering in Chevella, Telangana. At the 14:58 minute timestamp, we can hear his remarks at the beginning of the viral video.

It's worth noting that on April 25, 2023, while addressing a rally in Siddipet, Telangana, Shah announced that reservations for Muslims would be halted. A 9:30-minute video of this announcement can be viewed here.

Furthermore, we discovered that the Delhi Police Cybercrime Unit filed an FIR against this edited video following a complaint by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
 

Muslim reservation in Telangana 

According to a report by Hindustan Times dated April 25, 2024, Muslims in Telangana receive a four percent reservation in education and employment under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category. However, this quota has been implemented not by reducing the existing quota of OBCs but by creating a separate category of OBCs known as BC-E. The report further states that this reservation has been challenged in court multiple times, and the case is currently pending in the Supreme Court.

The verdict

A video of Amit Shah’s speech in Chevella, Telangana, has been edited to replace the word “Muslim” with “SC, ST, and OBC communities.” He stated that unconstitutional Muslim reservations in Telangana would be scrapped. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.

(Update: The story has been updated to add posts from several Congress accounts making the false assertion.) 

(Translated by Azra Ali)