Fact Check: BHU did not issue orders about appointing Nita Ambani as visiting professor

The leading lady of the Ambani family, Nita Ambani, who is the wife of Reliance Industries chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani, celebrated her 60th birthday. She is the first Indian businesswoman to be elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee.

The chairperson of the Adani Foundation, Priti Adani, is also an influential woman. Along with these two strong ladies even Lakshmi Mittalʼs wife Usha Mittal is also another influential woman.

Recently, a post about Nita Ambani and Priti Adani is going viral again on social media. The viral news claimed that there is a tussle between Ambani and Adani's wives to be a part of the Banaras Hindu University as a visiting professor.

However, social media users ignored Priti Adani and Usha Mittal and focused on Nita Ambani alone, where numerous posts and stories are written on Nita Ambani.

The posts with captions in Hindi read

"यही दिखना और बिकना बाक़ी रह गया था .अब @DrLaxman_Yadav जी जैसे शिक्षक की ज़रूरत नहीं होगी. नालायक छात्र को समझ नहीं है .पहले किसान को किसान बिल और जवान को orop की समझ नहीं थी“

When we translated, the text claims: "This is what is left to be seen and sold. Now, @DrLaxman Yadav ji, there will be no need of a teacher like you, an incompetent student does not understand, earlier the farmer did not understand the Kisan Bill and the soldier did not understand the OROP."

The X (Twitter) user shared a newspaper clipping with the post.

A few more Facebook users also shared the newspaper clipping with different captions.

FACT CHECK

The viral claim is misleading. The image that is viral on social media is not a recent one.

We searched the image using the Google reverse image search tool and found several social media users published the posts on their social media platforms.

We also searched using relevant keywords about Nita Ambani, Priti Adani and BHU. We found many different articles published on news websites.

According to Times Now news article which was published on March 17, 2021, “BHU thought of hiring Nita Ambani to join Women's Study Centre as a visiting professor which benefits the students. Where Reliance industries have done a lot of work in the field of women empowerment” but this announcement was just oral.

We found an article published on JAGRAN.COM on March 17, 2023 reading: “Reliance Industries Limited denies making Nita Ambani the visiting professor of BHU”

A denial has been released after reports that Nita Ambani has been appointed as a visiting professor at Banaras Hindu University (BHU). According to ANI reports, Nita Ambani did not receive any invitation from BHU. The Reliance Industries Limited also released information in this regard.

We also found a post on the X handle of news agency ANI which was published on March 17, 2021 carrying Nita Ambani’s picture and gave a caption that reads: “Reports that Nita Ambani (in pic) will be a visiting lecturer at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) are fake. She hasn't received an invitation from BHU”. This statement was given by Reliance Industries Limited spokesperson to ANI.

Some of the news articles which were published on BHU and about the visiting professor faculty̤

These posts were published in 2021

For further clarification, we searched BHU's social media handles. In the X handle, we found a post that was published on March 17, 2021 making a mention of media reports about Nita Ambani's appointment as visiting professor at the Centre for Women’s Studies, faculty of Social Science, BHU. The university authorities clarified that no official decision was taken by the BHU administration and that no administrative orders were issued. The approval of the Academic Council is mandatory for the appointment of Visiting Professors but the authorities didn't receive any proposal about Nita Ambani’s appointment.

Therefore, the viral post is misleading the social media users. An attempt is being made to create confusion by rehashing old newspaper cuttings. The claim is misleading.