Video shows image of Hindu deity Ram displayed in north Indian city of Dehradun, not Kashmir
- Published on January 29, 2024 at 07:46
- 4 min read
- By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
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"Our revered Lord Ram now adorns Lal Chowk in Srinagar, where even the Indian national flag was not flown earlier," reads part of the Hindi-language caption of a video shared on Facebook here on January 18, 2024.
The video shows an image of the Hindu deity being projected on a building overlooking an intersection.
The caption continues: "This is the magic of Narendra Modi. Modi has brought lord Ram's rule to Kashmir by removing Article 370."
Lal Chowk is a square in Srinagar, the largest city in Indian-administered Kashmir (archived link).
The Muslim-majority region, also claimed by Pakistan and home to a long-running insurgency against Indian rule, was guaranteed limited autonomy under Article 370 of the constitution (archived link).
Its autonomy was suspended in 2019 by Modi's government, bringing it under New Delhi's direct rule.
The same video was shared elsewhere on Facebook here and here, as well as on social media platform X here.
It was shared days before Modi's inauguration of a Hindu temple to Ram in the city of Ayodhya on January 22.
The temple was built on ground where a mosque had stood for centuries before it was torn down in 1992 by Hindu zealots incited by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The destruction presaged the rise of the BJP and Modi as unstoppable electoral juggernauts, and Modi's consecration of the temple alongside Hindu priests again projects him as a defender of the faith ahead of a general election expected to begin in April.
But the video circulating in social media posts was not filmed in Muslim-majority Srinagar.
Dehradun clock tower
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same clip shared on the official Facebook page of Hindi news outlet Punjab Kesari on January 19 (archived link).
Its Hindi-language caption reads: "Dehradun becomes devotional, Lord Ram's picture displayed on Clock Tower Dehradun."
Dehradun, a city in the northern state of Uttarakhand, is approximately 760 kilometres (470 miles) from Srinagar.
According to nationwide census data from 2011, the majority of the city's population are Hindus (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the clip uploaded on Punjab Kesari's Facebook page (right):
An image showing the deity on the clock tower was also used in a report by Hindi-language newspaper Amar Ujala (archived link).
The report says the image was displayed during a light show on January 19 to celebrate the inauguration of the Ayodhya temple. There were also decorations throughout the city and a procession was planned for the date of the inauguration.
Other media outlets shared similar videos showing the light show at the clock tower here, here and here (archived links here, here and here).
The clock tower shown in the falsely shared video matches Google Street View imagery of the tower (archived link).
The clock tower in Lal Chowk in Srinagar, however, differs significantly from the one shown in the falsely shared video (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of Google Street View imagery of the lock tower in Dehradun (left) and the tower in Lal Chowk (right):
An AFP journalist based in Kashmir said no such display had been arranged at the Lal Chowk clock tower.
AFP has previously debunked misinformation about Kashmir here and here.
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