A video of a burqa-clad woman smashing Ganesh idols in a shop is being widely circulated on social media. Several users tweeted the video claiming that the incident occurred in Kerala, India. The tweet text is in Hindi and it appeals to social media users to share the video widely without wasting time.
One of the users @sandippatelbjym tweeted the video urging Hindus to take notice. The caption reads, “I urge fellow Hindus to watch this video from Kerala and forward it for wider reach…your silence will come at a cost because it would be of no avail to forward it after six months so move your fingers and forward it. #wake up_Hindus_wake up” (archive link).
में आज सभी हिंदू सनातनी भाईयो से निवेदन करता हु की केरल के इस विडियो को देखें और इसे जितना हो सके उतना फॉरवर्ड करें अगर आप यू आज चुप रहते हैं तो हमें नुकसान होगा क्योंकि 6 महीने के बाद इसे आगे बढ़ाने का कोई फायदा नहीं होगा उँगलियाँ घुमाएँ और इसे आगे बढ़ाएँ #जागो_हिंदू_जागो 🚩 pic.twitter.com/Ql16tXMhxY
— SANDIP PATIDAR BJP (@sandippatelbjym) September 11, 2022
User @vijay_pratihari([archive link) tweeted:
केरल के इस विडियो को देखें और इसे जितना हो सके उतना फॉरवर्ड करें …. अगर आप यू आज चुप रहते हैं तो हमें नुकसान होगा … क्योंकि *6 महीने के बाद इसे आगे बढ़ाने का कोई फायदा नहीं होगा* … उँगलियाँ घुमाएँ और इसे आगे बढ़ाएँ अभी,,,शायद धर्मनिरपेक्ष हिन्दूओ को कुछ समझ आ सके।
— Vijay Kumar Pratihari (@vijay_pratihari) September 5, 2022
This tweet adds, “Hope this video would knock some sense into secular Hindus. ”
User @hinduarmychief (archive link) inserted the term ‘sanatan premiyon’ roughly translated as ‘followers of the Hindu way of living’ into the forwarded text.
केरल के इस विडियो को देखें सनातन प्रेमियों और इसे जितना हो सके उतना फॉरवर्ड करें …. अगर आप यू आज चुप रहते हैं तो हमें नुकसान होगा … क्योंकि *6 महीने के बाद इसे आगे बढ़ाने का कोई फायदा नहीं होगा* … उँगलियाँ घुमाएँ और इसे आगे बढ़ाएँ अभी🙏🙏🙏☹️☹️👍 pic.twitter.com/zqZG5C721Q
— Hindu Army (@hinduarmychief) July 24, 2022
Fact check:
A keyword search of the video on YouTube showed that the incident took place in Bahrain in 2020 and not in Kerala, as mentioned in the recent tweets. News9 live had published the video on August 17, 2020, on their YouTube channel.
A news report shared on the Qantara.de web page and their Twitter account further confirm the location of the incident. Readers should note that Qantara.de is a project run by Deutsche Welle and it involves the Goethe-Institut and the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) as members of the project advisory committee.
#Bahrain woman charged with insulting Hindu religious symbol. #Ganesha https://t.co/Wz7vkn3Htv pic.twitter.com/xBiI8JnvB9
— QantaraEN (@QantaraEN) August 18, 2020
The official Twitter handle of the Ministry of Interior (archive link), Bahrain, had also addressed the issue of vandalism in the shop.
A keyword search on Google shows several news reports corroborating the fact that the incident took place in Bahrain in 2020 and that the law enforcement authorities had addressed the issue. The public prosecutor charged the woman with several counts of criminal damage and said she would be tried in court.
We can conclude that the claims made in the widely-shared tweets are false, and the incident shown in the video has no connection to Kerala or India.
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