India TV Fact Check: Amid the political uproar over Home Minister Amit Shah's recent statement on BR Ambedkar in the Rajya Sabha, social media users are claiming that the name of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi has been changed to Dr BR Ambedkar University. However, a fact-check by India TV revealed that these claims are entirely false.
What is going viral?
Several social media users on various platforms such as Facebook and X are claiming that the name of JNU has now been changed to Dr BR Ambedkar University. A user named K Shankar on Facebook wrote, "BJP has changed the name of Jawaharlal Nehru University to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University." At the same time, a user named Aafreen_ Qureshi on X has also made the same claim.
India TV did investigation
As the claim about renaming JNU went viral on social media, a thorough investigation was conducted to verify its authenticity. First, we did an open Google search using relevant keywords, however, we did not find any credible news reports supporting such claims. However, we found a news report from the Economic Times dated February 18, 2021. In this report, the then Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal clarified that there was no proposal to rename JNU. According to the news, in the year 2020, the then BJP General Secretary CT Ravi had proposed to change the name of JNU to Swami Vivekananda.
Since no concrete evidence was found to support the claim that JNU has been renamed, further verification was conducted. The official website of the Union Education Ministry was reviewed. We also checked the official X handle of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Additionally, the official website of JNU was thoroughly checked. However, none of these sources contained any information or announcements regarding the renaming of JNU. This confirmed that the claim circulating on social media about JNU being renamed as Dr BR Ambedkar University is entirely false.
What came out in fact check?
A fact-check conducted by India TV has confirmed that the claim of renaming JNU to Dr BR Ambedkar University is entirely false. No such decision has been made by the government. Citizens are advised to remain cautious and not believe such misleading claims circulating on social media.
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