- The Verdict: Misleading In his speech, Udhayanidhi Stalin identified as Christian, Muslim, and Hindu, promoting unity. The viral video focuses only on the Christian remark.
What’s the claim?
A viral post on X claims that Udhayanidhi Stalin, the deputy chief minister of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, described himself as a “proud Christian” during a speech and mocked Hinduism. The post includes a one minute and 29 seconds long video of the speech.
At the start of the video, Stalin states, “I will say this again, and I take pride in saying this: I am a proud Christian. You might already know this irritates many Sanghis. But today, I will say it again: I am a proud Christian.” The caption suggests that Stalin mocked Hinduism during the speech. Multiple users have shared the post with identical video clips and captions. Archived versions of these posts are available here, here, and here.
However, our investigation revealed that the viral video was edited to cut and stitch together different parts of Stalin’s speech, emphasising the segment where he mentioned identifying as a Christian. In reality, Stalin identified as a Christian, Muslim, and Hindu during the speech, emphasising his belief in religious equality.
What did we find?
We reviewed the viral video and noted that at the 1:20 mark, Stalin says, “If you think I am a Christian, then I am a Christian. If you think I am a Muslim, then I am a Muslim. If you think I am a Hindu, then I am a Hindu.” This statement clearly shows the caption misrepresents the context of his remarks.
A keyword search led us to reports of Stalin’s speech, which he delivered at a Christmas event in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, on December 19, 2024.
Further investigation revealed the full video of the speech, uploaded by Kalaignar TV (archived here) on YouTube. The viral video was clipped from this original footage.
In the unedited version of the speech, Stalin makes the highlighted remarks at the 1:05 mark (translation): “You people know I studied in the Don Bosco school and did my higher studies at Loyola College. At a Christmas event last year, I proudly said I am a Christian. Following that, Sanghis were jealous. Today I will tell you again that I am very proud to say that I am a Christian. If you people think of me as a Christian, I am a Christian. If you think of me as a Muslim, I am a Muslim. If you think of me as a Hindu, I am a Hindu. I am common to all. I have always been like that.”
The complete speech shows Stalin did not make any derogatory comments about Hinduism. In fact, while identifying as a Christian, he also identified as a Muslim and a Hindu, stressing unity among religions.
The verdict
Social media posts have misleadingly highlighted a segment of Stalin’s speech in which he identifies as a proud Christian. In the full speech, Stalin emphasised religious unity, stating that he identifies with all religions, including Hinduism and Islam.
This report first appeared on logicallyfacts.com, and has been republished on ABP Live as part of a special arrangement. Apart from the headline, no changes have been made in the report by ABP Live.