On August 15, 2023, India celebrated its 77th Independence Day. This year’s theme was ‘Nation First, Always First’ under the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebration.
Amidst this celebration, a video has surfaced on social media showing what appears to be a tricolour flag with a crescent and star on the roof of a building resembling the Indian flag. Giving this video a communal spin, many users on social media claim that Muslims in Alwar, Rajasthan have defaced the Indian flag during the recent Independence Day celebrations.
An Instagram user shared this video and wrote: “This will happen to fill they come in majority!! #islam #islamic #islamicvideo #islamicthoughts #muslim.”
This Instagram post can be seen here.
This is being widely shared on Facebook with a similar claim.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral post, and found it to be false.
Doing a Reverse Image Search, the NM team found a report of Chhattisgarh-based news outlet Lokswar, dated October 6, 2022, carrying visuals similar to the viral video. As per the report, the video is from Chorbhatthi-Kala village on the Bilaspur-Ganiyari-Kota Road, Chhattisgarh.
A clearer version of the video in the report identifies a building with a shop’s name — “Yousuf Mobile Shop and Electronics”. Searching further, our team found the shop on Google Maps and came across the street view visuals in which the same building can be seen. The building is located Chorbhatti-Kala village in the Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh. Below you can see the comparison.
We also found videos of similar flag in a procession of the Eid-ul-Milad-ul Nabi festival. It’s an annual celebration to commemorate the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad. It is worth noting that last year, the celebration occurred in October 2022, and the image in question was published by Lokswar during the same time.
Therefore, we can conclusively say that a 2022 video has been widely circulated on social media with a false “communal spin”.