After Indian government took the historic decision to fully integrate Jammu and Kashmir into India by abrogating Articles 370 and 35A, Pakistan has been engaging in a misinformation campaign to claim that there are widespread protests against the decision. Several influential persons and ordinary social media users from Pakistan had shared several old videos and fake news claiming they show atrocities of Indian security forces against Kashmiri protesters.
As part of that misinformation campaign, several social media users posted a video clip on Twitter today claiming that is shows granddaughter Maharaj Hari Singh speaking against the Indian government.
https://twitter.com/sumraali/status/1161188716230168576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/PadmaRK_1/status/1161610141738815489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/IrfanKh95841851/status/1161332418923524096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
In the video, a woman can be addressing a meeting where she argues that Maharaja Hari Singh agreed to join independent India as a sovereign state. Maharaja Hari Singh was the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir at the time of independence, and he had signed the Instrument of Accession with India.
But contrary to claims made by several Pakistanis, the woman in the video is not the granddaughter of Hari Singh. The woman presenting the separatist lecture in the video is actually Prof. Hameeda Nayeem, a professor at Kashmir University. Hammeda is the wife of Hurriyat leader Nayeem Ahmad Khan.
The video clip used is from a speech Hameeda Nayeem gave in Aligarh Muslim University last year. In the full video of the speech embedded below, the relevant portion can be seen from 23rd minute onward.
Soon after the video was shared on social media platforms claiming to be granddaughter of Maharaja Hari Singh, it caught the attention of Vikramaditya Singh, the grandson of Hari Singh. He tweeted that his sister and the real granddaughter of Maharaja Hari Singh is Dr. Jyotsna Singh, not the woman seen in the video. He also asked people to ignore the fake/malicious video.
https://twitter.com/vikramaditya_JK/status/1161265698758258694?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Jyotsna Singh is also known as Jyoti Singh, and a 2016 interview with her available on Youtube shows that she looks very different from Hameeda Nayeem. This means its not a case of mistaken identity, but deliberate use of old video of different person to spread a malicious campaign to suggest the Maharaja Hari Singh’s family is opposing the abrogation of Article 370. But the fact is, Dr. Karan Singh, son Maharaja Hari Singh, has already welcomed the move by Modi government.