India Gate has names of 70,000 Indian soldiers who lost their lives fighting for the British Army during World War I | Photo Credit: PTI

Key Highlights Asaduddin Owaisi claimed that India Gate has names of 93,500 freedom fighters He further added that 61,945 of them are Muslims

New Delhi: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, during a recent rally, claimed that the India Gate has names of '95,300 freedom fighters' out of which 61,945 are Muslims. Addressing a rally in Mumbai's Chandiwali, Owaisi claimed that he tried to find names of RSS workers on the structure, 'but failed to find any'.

"On India Gate Mr Modi, there are 95,300 names of freedom fighters. These are people who fought against Britishers. You will be happy to know that 61,945 of these were Muslims. I was trying to find the name of an RSS member, but I did not get it... If someone questions your patriotism, ask him to go to Delhi and tell him your father's name is written on India Gate," Owaisi told his audience to thundering applause.



The AIMIM chief is not the only one to make these claims. Similar posts were also made by many on the internet who claim that India Gate has names of 8050 Sikhs, 14,480 backward class individuals and 10,777 Dalits.

Times Now ran a quick fact check on Owaisi's claims and this is what we found out. According to the official website of Delhi Tourism, India Gate has names of '70,000 Indian soldiers who lost their lives fighting for the British Army during World War I'.

This makes the very foundation of Owaisi's argument — that India Gate has the names of freedom fighters — baseless. According to the Delhi Tourism website, the memorial also "bears the names of more than 13,516 British and Indian soldiers killed in the Northwestern Frontier in the Afghan war of 1919".

Owaisi's makes the claims in the video below on the 30th minute

While a new memorial, the Amar Jawan Jyoti, was constructed much later after India's independence, this too, has the names of soldiers who laid down their lives in the Indo-Pakistan War of December 1971, and not the freedom fighters.

The source of numbers Owaisi has based his argument on is unknown, but given that the total number of names on India Gate is 70,000, against '95,300' as claimed by Owaisi, AIMIM chief's claims are completely false.