Recently some Indian media outlets published a news headlined “Bangladeshi leader Tarique Rahman refers to Hindu scriptures as ‘porn text’, claims they offer no moral teaching.” In the report, they used the name and picture of BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman and some cited it as Tarique Rahman’s speech.
Several Indian media portal including Opindia, India Today, Times Now, Reportwire, Asianet Suvarna news, Janpeace live have published news on this using the name and picture of BNP’s Tarique Rahman.
Fact-check
Rumor Scanner team has found that BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman did not make any such statement referring to Hindu scriptures as ‘porn texts’, rather a similar statement was made in 2021 by another man named Md Tarek Rahman, who is currently a Joint Member Secretary of Gono Odhikar Parishad, a newly formed Bangladeshi political party.
Although the controversial speech has been reported in the Indian media as a recent time speech, we did not find any such recent speech of anyone.
Later, by conducting a keyword search, a similar speech by Tarek Rahman of Gono Odhikar Parishad was found in a video published on March 13, 2021 on a Facebook page named Dhaka Television.
In the video footage, Md Tarek Rahman of the Gano Odhikar Parishad can be heard saying, “If there is any country in the world, it is cheater India, which has no ideals of its own, no morals of its own, no ethical points of its own. In their history, tradition, the scriptures that are different….., They are not scriptures but porn texts (Chati Granth).
So, in a live on Facebook in March 2021, the Joint Member Secretary of the Gono Odhikar Parishad, Md Tarek Rahman mentioned the scriptures that are in the history and tradition of India as Chati Granth (Porn texts), without mentioning the name of any specific religion.
The controversial live video was removed by Md Tarek Rahman of the Gano Odhikar Parishad at the time, so the live of the March 2021 was not available on his page. However, he was seen on March 11, 2021 in a Facebook Live wearing a similar t-shirt.
We have found some reports published at that time on the controversial speech of Tarek Rahman of Gono Odhikar Parishad.
“Convener APM Suhail and member secretary Ismail Samrat of the Bangladesh General Student Rights Protection Parishad said in a protest letter that (reported by Bhorer Kagoj and Daily Janakantho on 13 march 2021) a video of Tarek Rahman has gone viral on social media, which we feel that this is clearly a religious insult and an attempt to destroy Hindu-Muslim harmony living in Bangladesh.What he said in the video message was very dirty and full of profanity. He referred to the religious texts of neighboring India as ‘porn texts’ and presented their story vulgarly.
Suhail and Samrat also said in the protest letter that the neighboring country ‘India’s scriptures’ refers to all the scriptures of all the nations living there. Hindus are not the only people living in India. Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and many other religions live there. His statement is against the spirit of non-communal Bangladesh.”
Also, BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman’s name is spelled as ‘Tarique Rahman’, on the other hand, Gono Odhikar Parishad Joint Member Secretary Tarek Rahman’s name is spelled as Tarek Rahman . Indian media outlets have used the spelling Tarique Rahman in their reports, which indirectly refers to BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman.
Basically, a controversial statement given by Md. Tarek Rahman, joint member secretary of Gono Odhikar Parishad in March 2021, has been circulated in various Indian media recently. While circulating this old controversial speech recently, some portals used the picture and name of Tarique Rahman(also known as Tarique Zia), Acting Chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), while some others cited the statement as his own, alongside the use of his picture. ading.
Thus, the news circulated in the Indian media claiming that Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman has referred to Hindu scriptures as ‘porn texts’ is completely false. Rather, it is an old statement given by another person named Tarek Rahman. However, spreading this old statement as claimimg recent statement is also misleading.
Sources
- Dhaka Television on Facebook (Old Speech video of Md Tarek Rahman) – https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTelevision1971/videos/434847390911756
- Md Tarek Rahman on Facebook – https://fb.watch/i1lD5rVDyX/
- Bhorer Kagoj – নূরের সংগঠনের নেতার সাম্প্রদায়িক বক্তব্যে প্রতিবাদ একাংশের
- Daily Janakantha – নূরের সংগঠনের উগ্র সাম্প্রদায়িক তৎপরতা
- Facebook Page of Tarique Rahman – https://www.facebook.com/tariquerahman.bdbnp
- Facebook Page of Md Tarek Rahman – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100050306567294
