Video of Indian police dispersing protest reshared in false posts about mosque demolition clash

Published on January 12, 2024 at 08:59
4 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

A video of police dispersing a sit-in protest in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in 2015 has been recirculated in posts that falsely claim it shows officers clashing with a group of Hindus who demolished a mosque in the 1990s, prompting deadly riots. The posts circulated online after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pledged to inaugurate a Hindu temple at the site of the demolished mosque in January 2024.

The two-minute six-second video shows police officers beating a group of people, including a person dressed in saffron robes.

It was shared on January 3, 2024 alongside a caption about a divisive temple dedicated to Lord Ram in Ayodhya town that has come to symbolise the country's rising tide of Hindu nationalism.

The nearly complete temple was built on a site where the Babri mosque once stood for centuries. The mosque was demolished by Hindu zealots in 1992, leading to widespread riots across the country that killed 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.

Two years earlier, Mulayam Singh Yadav, then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and a staunch secularist, had ordered police to fire at a crowd of people attempting to demolish the mosque (archived link).

The events reshaped India's political landscape, establishing Hindu nationalism as a dominant force.

The post's caption reads: "30 years ago when the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav was in power in Uttar Pradesh, there was a scene of beating Ram devotees and Shankaracharya without conscience. Hindus should know how important a vote is."

Shankaracharya is a religious title used for the heads of Hindu monasteries.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on January 4, 2024

BJP has campaigned for decades to build the Ram temple on the site of the demolished mosque, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to inaugurate it in January this year (archived link).

Modi's presence at the inauguration is effectively the opening salvo in his campaign for re-election in 2024.

The video was shared alongside a similar false claim on Facebook here and here, and on social media platform X by a co-convener for the BJP's social media team in Uttar Pradesh.

Sit-in protest

A keyword search on YouTube found a longer version of the same video published on the verified channel of a Hindi TV channel News 24 on September 23, 2015 (archived link).

The Hindi-language report is about police in the city of Varanasi attempting to disperse a sit-in protest of religious devotees who wanted to immerse a Hindu idol in the river Ganges.

Its title reads: "Varanasi Police lathi charge devotees trying to immerse Ganesha idol".

Varanasi is more than 200km (124 miles) from Ayodhya, where the false posts claimed the footage was filmed.

In 2015, Akhilesh Yadav was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh -- contrary to the false posts' claim that the footage was filmed when his father, Mulayam Singh, was in power (archived link).

Below is the screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and the YouTube video from News 24 (right):

The same video was also published by other news channels here and here (archived links here and here).

Clearer footage of the same event in Varanasi was published on the verified YouTube channel of a Hindi news channel Aaj Tak on September 23, 2015 (archived link).

Its title reads, "Varanasi Police Lathi-Charge Pilgrims Immersing Ganesha Idols In Ganga."

At the beginning of the news report, the news anchor can be heard saying, "After the order of the High Court in Varanasi, the district administration had banned the immersion of religious idols in the river Ganga, but a group of religious leaders were adamant about immersing the idol in the river itself, then police charged to stop them."

According to a report by Indian Express after the High Court order, the district administration made arrangements for the immersion of idols in a local pond -- Lakshmi Kund -- but some Hindu religious leaders insisted on immersing the idols in the river Ganga and subsequently launched a sit-in protest (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the YouTube video of Aaj Tak (right):

According to local reports, the incident happened on Varanasi's Godowlia Chauraha.

At the one-minute, 22-second mark of the Aaj Tak YouTube video, a signboard for the nearby Bata showroom on Madanpura Road can be seen, as shown on Google Street View here.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the Aaj Tak video (left) and the same location on Google Street View (right):

AFP has repeatedly debunked misinformation around the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya here, here and here.

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