Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath never claimed that he was God

A video of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister is doing the rounds on Facebook with the claim “Yogi Adityanath declares himself to be God”.

The post has been shared more than 5,000 times on the pages – “Amethi Rae Bareli Ki Kahani” and “Azamgarh Express” at the time of writing this report.

The two pages shared this video have more than twenty eight lakh followers, in total.

The post with the caption reads, “Hanuman Ji ki jati Dalit batane ke baad. Yogi Adityanath ne khud ko ghoshit kiya bhagwaan!” (After stating Lord Hanuman’s caste as Dalit, Yogi Adityanath declares himself as God.) Users have criticised Yogi for equating himself to God.

India Today Fact Check found that the video has been edited in such a way that viewers will believe Yogi is calling himself god. In reality he refused when asked if he was God.

In the video, Yogi Adityanath was being interviewed by senior journalist Dibang.

In the manipulated video, Dibang asks Yogi “Yogi Adityanath keh rahe hai ki voh Bhagwan hai (Yogi Adityanath is saying that he is god?)”. The UP CM replies “Yahi to khoobi Hai ki main kahin nahi hooon aur sab jageh bhi hoon”. (This is the quality, that I am nowhere, but still I am present everywhere).

The anchor then asks him if he is god, to which Yogi can be heard replying; “Yes”, in the video. Carefully watching the video one can get a hint that the audio of Yogi’s reply “yes” is inserted just after the anchor finishes his question.

In between these two question and the answer, a viewer can notice that there is also a “video jump” and we can see anchor asking another question. In this small 17 second clip, the insertion of Yogi’s audio and the manipulation of the video are done between 13th and 14th second.

The video has been edited to change its narrative, deliberately. This is confirmed after watching the original interview. We found that the clip has been picked up from a February 2017 interview. The duration of this interview in nearly twenty eight minutes.

After comparing with the original video we found that in the viral video, the order of questions and answers has also been altered, purportedly to represent a false narrative.

In the original video, the anchor (at 0:45 seconds) asks Yogi Adityanath why BJP is not rewarding his contribution to the party? Yogi dodged the question by saying that, “This is the quality, that I am nowhere still I am omnipresent.”

The anchor again counters Yogi’s statement by asking him “Yogi Adityanath says I am god ?”. To this Yogi’s response was “I never used these words”.

The transcript of this conversation can be read here:

Anchor: Panch term saansad par aap mantri nahin bane, teen cabinet vistaar ho gaye. Parivartan rally ke jo poster hain usme aapki tasveer nahi hai. Election committee bani December mein, aap usme nahi. Main aapse puchna chahta huun ki aap rah kaha jate hain? ( you remained an MP for five terms but still you could not become a cabinet minister in the meantime there were three cabinet expansions happenedYour poster is also missing in the “parivartan rally”you are missing from the Election Committee made in DecemberI wanted to ask you, where are you?)

Yogi Adityanath: Yehi to khoobi hai, ki mein kahni nahi hoon aur sab jagah bhi hoon. ( this is the quality, I am nowhere but I am present everywhere)

Anchor: Aap hein aur kahin bhi nahin hain. Matlab aap bhagwaan hain? ( You are there but you are nowhere! That means , you are God ?)

Yogi Adityanath: Mein sab jagah hoon. Mujhe lagta hain jo jis roop mein manega main us jagh waha par hoon ( I am everywhere, I think anybody who wants me in whatever form, I am present there)

Anchor: Yogi Adityanath keh rahe hain main bhagwaan hoon? ( Yogi Adityanath is saying “I am God” !)

Yogi Adityanath: Maine kabhi inn shabdon ka prayog nahin kiya. Main ek yogi huin aur ek yogi ke roop mein apni bhumika ka nirvahan kar raha hoon. ( I have not used these words. I am a Yogi and I am playing my role as a Yogi)

Yogi Adityanath was caught in a controversy few days back when during an election rally in Rajasthan, he allegedly called lord Hanuman a “Dalit”. While BJP defended him saying that he was not referring to lord Hanuman, Congress accused him of playing politics over Gods.