Fact Check | ‘Rashtriya Ujala’ news clip claiming Maulana Sajjad Nomani demanded MVA to transfer farmers’ land to Waqf board is fake

A newspaper clipping (here, here, and here) is being widely circulated across social media platforms, allegedly claiming that Maulana Sajjad Nomani, a member of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, stated that if the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance wins in Maharashtra, they will demand that farmers’ lands and Hindu religious sites be transferred to the Waqf Board. In this article, we fact-check the claim made in the post.

The archived version of this post can be found here.

To verify the authenticity of the viral claim, we conducted a relevant keyword search. However, this search did not yield any credible reports suggesting that Maulana Sajjad Nomani made these statements. If he had indeed made such remarks, the media would have reported on it. We also checked his social media accounts (here, here, here, and here) but found no posts indicating that he made such statements.

This viral newspaper clipping mentions the publisher as Rashtriya Ujala and the reporter as ‘Ankit Pathak.’ Following this lead, we conducted further research and found a website named Rashtriya Ujala. We examined the website and its e-paper but did not find any news reports published by them as stated in the viral clipping. The Rashtriya Ujala website displays a disclaimer stating: ‘We have received information that false and malicious news about Shri Uddhav Thackeray is being circulated on social media, wrongly attributed to Rashtriya Ujala. We would like to clarify that our publication has no connection with this fabricated information.’

Furthermore, we also found a Facebook post (archived link) by Rashtriya Ujala (Dainik Rashtriya Ujala) clarifying that fake news clippings are being shared on social media under the name of the Rashtriya Ujala newspaper. The post further stated that reporters named Pranav Dogra and Ankit Pathak have no connection with the Rastriya Ujala newspaper.

During this search, we also found a post (archived link) on X (formerly Twitter) made by Maulana Sajjad Nomani on 19 November 2024, clarifying that he had not made any demands to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in exchange for his support. The post reads: ‘Some friends in the media and some communal people are linking me to some Ulema Board or Council and saying that I had written a letter with 17 demands to the parties of the Maha Vikas Aghadi. I am neither the president nor a member of any Ulema Board or Council, nor have I written any such letter.’

Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance was formed by non-NDA political parties in Maharashtra, including the Indian National Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).

To sum up, this viral Rashtriya Ujala newspaper clipping alleging that Maulana Sajjad Nomani demanded the MVA to transfer of religious (Hindu) and farmers land to the Waqf Board after their victory in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections is fake. There is no evidence to suggest that he made such statements.

Claim: Rashtriya Ujala newspaper clipping reporting Maulana Sajjad Nomani’s statement that if the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) wins in Maharashtra, he will demand the transfer of farmers’ lands and religious sites (Hindu) to the Waqf Board.

Fact: This is a fabricated news clipping. Rashtriya Ujala has clarified that they did not publish any such article. There is no evidence to suggest that Maulana Sajjad Nomani demanded the MVA to transfer of religious (Hindu) and farmers land to the Waqf Board after their victory in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.

This story was originally published by Factly, and republished by Deccan Herald as part of the Shakti Collective.