New Delhi: A video of a man entering a Durga Puja pandal and interrupting the festivities has gone viral on various social media platforms.
In the 37-second video, a man in a blue shirt and cap can be seen entering a Durga Puja pandal in Mumbai’s Malwani with another man, and asking people to shut down the music.
The man can be heard telling the people present: “Malwani mein rehna hai toh Aslam Bhai, Aslam Bhai kehna hai… yahan Modiji nahi ayenge, Aslam bhai hi ayenge (if you want to live in Malwani, you’ll have to chant Aslam Bhai, Aslam Bhai… Modiji won’t come here, only Aslam Bhai will)”.
A Twitter user shared the video and asked if news channels had the courage to show this.
दुर्गा पंडाल में घुसकर भजन बंद करवा कर बोला,
"कॉलोनी में रहना है तो असलम भाई कहना है, यहां मोदी नहीं आएगा !"
मलाड मुंबई की घटना !
पंडाल में अजान करवाकर उसे साम्प्रदायिक सद्भाव की मिसाल बताने वाले न्यूज़ चैनल में दम है ये खबर दिखाने की !@Brand_Netan @Brand_Anuj
👇🏻👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/Xeo6jg4vl6
— बबली पांडेय (@Real_bably) October 17, 2020
The tweet had garnered over 2,400 likes and the video watched more than 23,000 times at the time of publishing this report. Several Twitter users have also tagged Mumbai Police and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray while sharing it.
The video also surfaced on Facebook, with captions asking “secualists” to watch the video.
*जय जय श्री राम* "#जाग हिन्दू जाग"#सेकुलरिज्म का ठेका लेने वालों जरा देख लो:#मुंबई मलाड दुर्गा पंडाल मे #घुसकर भजन बंद करवाकर क्या बोल रहा है #सुन लो, और इसके बारे मे क्या कहोगे #लिखना जरूर!
माँ पूर्णागिरि प्रोपर्टीज़ यांनी वर पोस्ट केले शनिवार, १७ ऑक्टोबर, २०२०
Fact check
The video is found to be a year old, and the man in it is one Ashish Singh, and not ‘Aslam bhai’.
The video had gone viral last year also around this time. Back then, in October 2019, BBC Hindi had done a fact check on the video. Singh had posted the video on his Facebook profile on 8 October 2019.
He was quoted by BBC Hindi as saying, “I am a Hindu myself and the video was created for entertainment purposes only. Some people are sharing my video with the wrong message so that the communal atmosphere can be spoiled.”
He also said the person he entered the pandal with was Nadeem Sheikh while another man with him in the video was one Ravishankar Dubey.
Singh also told the BBC that after the video went viral, Dubey had filed a complaint at the Malwani police station. This complaint informed the authorities that Dubey, along with his “close friend” Singh, had made the video “in a very casual way”.
“I say that this video has been made in a friendly manner, and my friend uploaded the video to entertain our other friends on social media such as facebook and whatsapp and, that there is no such unwarranted incident is happened at the place of Navratri pandal,” the complaint said.
“I say that we both belong to hindu community and we are very good friends. Out intention is not to hurt anybody, the uploading of the said video is taken adversely by communal elements to disturb peace and harmony in the locality and giving a communal way that it has been a conversation between a hindu and muslim,” it added.
In collaboration with SM Hoaxslayer
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