Mahaparinirvan Diwas is was observed on December 6 to commemorate the death anniversary of Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, fondly known as Babasaheb Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. Since then, a picture and a voice clip are being widely shared on social media platforms. It is being claimed along with the clip that it features the original voice of Babasaheb Ambedkar from the second Round Table Conference, held in London in 1931. During the investigation we found the claim to be false. The clip in fact features an audio clip from a movie on Dr BR Ambedkar and is not original. The viral claim is false.
Claim:
X user Subhash Desai shared the clip with a false claim.
Other users too are sharing the clip with the same claim even on Facebook.
Investigation:
We listened to the clip at the start of the investigation. The audio quality was very clear, and subtle music was audible in the background.
Through reverse image search, we found that the image used at the beginning of the clip was from the Second Round Table Conference.
We then did a Google keyword search on the text that was audible in the clip, “My colleague, Rao Bahadur Shrinivasan and I has honour to place before you the point of view of the depressed class of India”.
We found the text on several websites. One website suggested this was his speech at the Plenary Session, Fifth Sitting of the Round Table Conference on 20th November 1930.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, this speech can be found in a book, ‘Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Writing and Speeches Vol 2’.
On page 529, the headline mentions: Fifth Sitting – 20th November 1930.
We then took our keyword search to YouTube and used, ‘Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar speech’ and ‘Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar speech movie/clip’ to take our search further.
This took us to a movie uploaded on YouTube released in 2000, a Hindi version of the same is also available on YouTube.
The movie was directed by Jabbar Patel.
The audio from the viral clip can be heard at around 1 hour 37 mins in the movie.
We also checked his last interview with BBC News, uploaded on BBC News India channel. The audio interview was from 1955. The audio heard in the interview is very different from the one shared in viral clips.
Conclusion: Audio from ‘Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar (2000)’ movie in English is being shared claiming to be a real audio clip, featuring the voice of Dr BR Ambedkar at the Second Round Table Conference held in London. The viral claim is false.
