A viral video of Indian steel magnate Laxmi Mittal with a background audio clip is doing the rounds on social media. People have shared the picture claiming that it is his voice behind the audio clip, and he’s making bold statements about Hinduism in his speech.
A Facebook user posted the viral picture with a caption: Amazingly, bold statement by Laxmi Mittal (ArcelorMittal ), largest manufacturer of steel in the world as of today. Being a Hindu, one must be ashamed to listen his speech. Pl. listen. It is too good to listen till end, it is quite short, Bravo Mittal ji
You can check the post here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral video, and found it to be false.
If an influential person like Lakshmi Mittal made such claims, it would have been covered by major media groups. We could not find even a single credible source backing the claims. On listened to one of the speeches by Mittal to compare his voice with the viral audio, we found out that Mittal doesn’t sound like the person in the audio clip, at all.
Closely hearing the viral audio, we can hear him say “My grandfather was the second-largest steel manufacturer in the country after the Tatas. We were so heavily restricted by the British government to not manufacture more…” at the 1:58 mark. Conducting a Google Keyword Search about Mittal’s personal profile, we identified a Hindustan Times article, dated June 24, 2006, titled: Steel Will: Lakshmi Mittal.
The article gives a peek into the steel magnate’s life story and one of the paragraphs tells that he comes from a near-penniless family from Sadulpur, Rajasthan. It was his father who started the steel business in the early ’60s. We could not find any news linking his grandfather to the second-largest steel manufacturer in India after Tata. Similar profiles on Mittal can be found in Forbes and Visa Magazine as well.
According to a tweet on the official handle of Arcelor Mittal, dated September 19, 2019, the company clarified on Twitter that the speech in the audio has not been given by Lakshmi Mittal.
Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral video’s claim is false.
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