On March 29, a video went viral on social media wherein it was claimed that the owner of the Himalaya group called for boycotting Reliance Jio and Patanjali products. In the video, the person alleged that these companies are linked to RSS; thus, everyone should boycott them.
The reality behind the video
When checked, OpIndia noticed that the person in the video was an eminent lawyer Bhanu Pratap Singh. Notably, he is not related to the Himalaya company in any way. The video was from an anti-CAA protest that took place in January 2020. In the video itself, multiple posters related to the protests were visible. We had covered the hate-filled speech at that time.
The rant against Reliance and Patanjali starts at 3:21 minutes into the video, which was widely shared on various social media platforms. He was seen urging the gathered crowd at Mustafabad in New Delhi to boycott all products of Reliance Industries Limited, including Jio and petroleum. He further asked them to switch to Airtel, Vodafone or Idea, whatever brand they wanted but not Reliance.
He went ahead and urged the crowd to call for a ban on Patanjali products as well. Patanjali is owned by Yoga Guru Ramdev. He said, “What is Ramdev doing, he is selling us nothing but cows and Gobar (cow dung), and most of his products contain nothing but garbage.” He further insists that whatever Baba Ramdev’s company makes in profits, it is given to the RSS to ‘buy weapons’ against Muslims. “They take money from us and use it against us,” he added.
He further said, “They are our enemies. We will boycott them and will break their backbone. The person whose backbone gets broken will never be able to stand against us. This is a war, and we will have to adapt war tactics. Explain this well to your children, family and friends. Only we can do this.”
The same video went viral with similar claims in 2021 as well.
Statement by Himalaya
Rebutting the claims, Himalaya said on Twitter, “The social media posts circulated about #HimalayaWellness Company are fake & fabricated. The person in the video is not associated with Himalaya in any way. Himalaya is a proud homegrown Indian company conducting business with a high level of integrity.”
History of fake reporting against Himalaya
This is not the first time Himalaya has been targeted on social media platforms. Notably, the founder of the company was Muhammad Manal, who established it in 1930. Manal died in 1986. Back in October 2020, a similar claim had surfaced on social media where a video was widely circulated alleging the person in the video was Himalaya’s founder.
Upon investigating, we had found that the person in the video was not linked to Himalaya. He was a Saudi Arabia resident identified as Naqi Ahmed Nadwi. The video that was being circulated at that time was a clip from his statement after Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan in August 2020.
Earlier in March 2020, another post on social media went viral in which it was alleged that Himalaya Company funded a terrorist organization. A photograph of Philipe Haydon, President and CEO of Himalaya Drug Company, was shared with the post claiming he was Muhammad Manal, founder of the company. On both occasions, Himalaya issued a statement dismissing the claims and warned the fake news peddlers of legal consequences.
