Video of content creator shared as ‘Muslim man threatening Hindus' after Lok Sabha polls

What’s the claim?

Social media users have circulated a video of a bearded man wearing a skullcap criticizing the Hindu community, claiming that a Muslim man is abusing Hindus following the 2024 Lok Sabha election results. In these elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 293 seats, with the BJP securing 240 of them.

In the video, the man criticizes Hindus for not voting for the BJP, despite the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The Faizabad constituency, where Ayodhya is located, was won by Samajwadi Party’s Awadhesh Prasad, who defeated BJP's Lallu Singh by 54,567 votes, according to the Election Commission of India (archived here).

In the video, the man, seemingly seated in a car, speaks in Hindi and mocks Hindus. He suggests that if the Opposition had built a significant monument for Muslims, the Muslim community would have consistently supported their leader. He continues to make disparaging remarks throughout the video, emphasizing his criticism of Hindus.

An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the video with a caption in Kannada, which translates to: “Ustad scolded the Hindus, who were the reason for Modi's setback. People left Modi, who built the Ram Mandir. If Modi had built the Masjid in the same place, Muslims would have voted for him for their lifetime. Hindus, you have written the foreword for your destruction.”

The video also had the following text overlaid in Hindi: “The next government will build a mosque instead of our temple.” This video is being shared as a “message from Muslims to Hindus.” Archived versions of such posts can be found here and here.

Screenshot of claims made online. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

The man in this video, however, is not Muslim. He is an artist from Agra, Uttar Pradesh, named Dhirendra Raghav.

What we found

A reverse image search led us to Raghav's Instagram account, with the username dhirendra_raghav_79. He posted the same video (archived here) on June 4, 2024, with a Hindi caption: “Mosque will be built instead of temple (translated).” He later deleted the video after it went viral with misleading claims.

Analyzing his content, we found that many of his videos show him in various costumes and personas. Some depict him seated in a car, similar to the viral clip. He has also created content where he portrays himself as a Muslim character, which can be viewed here and here. Notably, most of his videos are pro-BJP.

Raghav describes himself as an artist on his Instagram profile and his Facebook account (archived here), where he states he is based in Agra, Uttar Pradesh.

Previously, we fact-checked another video of Raghav in April 2024, which falsely claimed that a Pakistani man asked Indians to support Prime Minister Modi. This fact-check can be read here.

The verdict

The video of a man criticizing Hindus after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections does not feature a Muslim man but an artist from Agra named Dhirendra Raghav. Raghav routinely posts videos in different costumes, pretending to be various characters.