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Did Kerala Police Stop Hindus From Celebrating Ganeshotsav? No, Viral Claim Is False
Writer: Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
Kerala, 15 Sep 2021 10:24 AM GMT
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As the founding editor, Bharat had been heading the newsroom during the formation years of the organization and worked towards editorial policies, conceptualizing and designing campaign strategies and collaborations. He believes that through the use of digital media, one could engage the millennial's in rational conversations about pertinent social issues, provoking them to think and bring a behavioral change accordingly.
Creatives : Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
A video of police removing a Ganesha idol is viral on social media with a claim that in Kerala, Hindus are not allowed to celebrate Ganeshotsav. The Logical Indian Fact Check team verifies the claim.
Across the country, Ganesh Chaturdashi was celebrated on 10 September. A video is becoming increasingly viral on social media, through which it is claimed that Hindus in Kerala were stopped from celebrating Ganeshotsav. In the viral video, Policemen are seen taking away an idol and forcibly removing people who seem to be doing Puja and loudly saying, "Jai Shree Ram".
Facebook user Ram Kumar while sharing this video wrote a caption in Hindi, "गणेशोत्सव में केरल में ये हालात हो गए है हिन्दुओ के, हिन्दू अपना त्योहार भी नही मना सकता है अपने हिन्दुस्थान में." [English Translation: This situation has happened in Kerala during the Ganeshotsav of Hindus. Hindu cannot even celebrate his festival in his Hindustan.]
It is being widely shared on Facebook and Twitter.
Claim:
Hindus in Kerala were stopped from celebrating Ganeshotsav.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian Fact Check team verified the claim and found it to be false. The viral video is from Hyderabad.
On observing the video, we noticed that people are talking in the Telugu language, while people generally speak the Malayalam language in Kerala. Keeping this in mind, we did a google reverse search with different keyframes of the viral video, which led us to a YouTube channel that has uploaded this video. The title of the video reads in English, "Ganesha arrested in Patabasti.ll @ vcmnews." In the video description, it was written in Telgu, "హైదరాబాద్ లో ఓ వర్గం ఫిర్యాదు మేరకు గణపతి ప్రతిష్టాపన అడ్డుకున్న పోలీసులు. స్వయంగా గణేశుడిని అరెస్ట్ చేసి పీఎస్ కు తరలించారు. *భారత్ లో ఉన్నామా..ఆఫ్ఘనిస్తాన్ లో ఉన్నామా? అని పలువురు హవాక్కయ్యరు."
[English Translation: According to a complaint lodged by a group in Hyderabad, the police blocked the installation of Ganapati. Ganesha himself was arrested and taken to PS. * Are you in India..are you in Afghanistan?]
On searching more, we found this video shared by a local journalist Shaikh Younus on his Facebook page. While sharing this video, he wrote, "Some anti-social elements try to communalized Hyderabad city, but Hyderabad police Fail them. In Rakshapuram area, Santosh police limits some Hindu Right wing's people forcefully sit Ganesh idol on private property which lead mild tension in Rakshapuram colony, but Hyderabad city police control the situation immediately, and heavy police deployed in entire Rakshapuram colony and police arrested many Right people and shifted them nearby police station."
We also find the same video report uploaded on the 'Reporter Subhan' page claiming that the incident is from Rakshapuram Society, Hyderabad.
Fact-Checking website Boom contacted Sub-Inspector A Rajendra of Santoshnagar police station to gets his reaction on this incident. While talking to Boom, he said that there is no communal angle in this incident. Actually, the place where people were doing Puja is a disputed land- 'a park' and two different groups are claiming it. We asked the locals to remove the Ganesh idol from there, and they removed it. However, later some political activists reached there and forcibly started erecting idols, so we had to remove them from there. The situation is under control now.
Hence, it is evident from our investigation that the video is not from Kerala but from Hyderabad. Also, there is no communal angle involved in it. It was a matter of land dispute in Rakshapuram Colony of Hyderabad. Hence, the viral claim is false.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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