In Tamil Nadu, the government of C. Vijay Joseph has proved its majority in the Assembly. Meanwhile, a claim is being circulated on social media regarding the Vijay government, alleging that it has appointed a Muslim man named Mustafa as the minister of the state’s ‘Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department’.
A user named Manoj Kumar Srivastava claimed in a post, “Joseph Vijay has appointed a Muslim minister as the head of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Ministry (HRCE). This means that, by the grace of greedy Hindus, the second phase of the complete destruction of Hindu temples has begun. TVK-DMK are two sides of the same coin.” ( English Translation)
Another user, Arun Pudur, ‘ posted with the caption: “Joseph Vijay has appointed a Muslim as the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HRCE) minister. The complete destruction of Hindu temples and the process of occupying them (2.0) has begun. As predicted, TVK is actually DMK 2.0.”
Fact Check:
During its investigation, the DFRAC team found that no minister named Mustafa took oath in the Tamil Nadu government, nor has any Muslim person been appointed as the minister of the ‘Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department.’ As part of the investigation, we checked the press release section of the official website of Tamil Nadu Lok Bhavan, lokbhavan.tn.gov.in. We found a press release dated 10 May 2026 containing a list of nine ministers scheduled to take the oath along with CM C. Vijay Joseph. The list clearly shows that there is no minister named Mustafa.
Further investigation revealed several media reports, including those by Jansatta and NDTV India, detailing the nine ministers who took oath alongside C. Vijay Joseph. These ministers are: 1-Thiru N. Anand, 2-Aadav Arjun, 3– KG Arun Raj, 4-KA. Sengottaiyan, 5– P. Venkataramanan, 6-R. Nirmal Kumar, 7– Rajmohan, 8-Dr. TK Prabhu, 9-S. Keerthana.
Upon further investigation, we also found two posts by TN Fact Check, the official fact-checking unit of the Tamil Nadu government, debunking the viral claim. The posts clarified that no one has yet been appointed as the minister of the ‘Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department’ in Tamil Nadu. One of the posts stated: “This is fake news. The Tamil Nadu government has not appointed any minister for the ‘Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department’ (HR & CE). The claim circulating on social media that a person from a religious minority community has been appointed as the minister of this department is completely false.”
Conclusion:
DFRAC’s fact check clearly establishes that no Muslim man named Mustafa has been appointed as the minister of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department’ (HR & CE). The claim circulating on social media is fake.
