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| - Fact Check: This 'astronaut' was highlighting Bengaluru's pothole problem — not Jammu and Kashmir's
A video of a man dressed as an astronaut highlighting the poor condition of roads in Bengaluru is being widely shared with the claim that it shows pothole-filled roads in J&K.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is not from Jammu and Kashmir, It is from Bengaluru. Baadal Nanjundaswamy, a Bengaluru-based artist and activist, made this video to highlight the city’s pothole problem.
An astronaut slowly walks on what looks like a ground pockmarked with craters. Only, the astronaut is not an astronaut. And the ground is not outside the Earth’s atmosphere — it’s a road full of potholes, supposedly in Jammu and Kashmir.
This video has been widely shared on social media, with many attempting to highlight the lack of infrastructure maintenance in Jammu and Kashmir. One such post reads, “Congratulations to all Kashmiris, especially administration of Jammu and Kashmir to achieve such an achievement of landing on moon. All credit goes to administration of Jammu and Kashmir for their unprovidable [sic] facilities.”
But is this video from J&K? No. AFWA found that it was from Bengaluru. The video was created by a Bengaluru-based painter and activist to highlight the condition of roads in the city.
AFWA Probe
While searching, we came across several news reports from September 2019 that said the video was from Bengaluru’s Herohalli and the “astronaut” was Bengaluru-based artist and activist Baadal Nanjundaswamy.
Therein we also found the original September 2, 2019, tweet by Baadal containing the video, shared with hashtags like “Herohalli” and “Namma Bengaluru”. At the time of writing this, the video had around 1.7 million views.
Hello bbmp @BBMPCOMM @BBMP_MAYOR @bbm #thelatest #streetart #nammabengaluru #herohalli pic.twitter.com/hsizngTpRH — baadal nanjundaswamy (@baadalvirus) September 2, 2019
Per the Indian Express, following the video’s popularity, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city’s civic body, took immediate action and began repair work on those roads the very next day.
Baadal himself had shared the video of this response by the civic authorities with the caption, “Thank you people for such a overwhelming response and support! Work in progress. Quick and prompt response from BBMP.”
Thank you people for such a overwhelming response and support!
Work in progress.. Quick and prompt response from @BBMP. Thank you very much @BBMPCOMM @BBMP_MAYOR and Mr. Prabhakar, CE RR Nagar who is overlooking on ground currently. pic.twitter.com/clgoLAIKzU — baadal nanjundaswamy (@baadalvirus) September 3, 2019
Baadal, a gold medalist in Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts, is known to create artworks to highlight such issues. In 2015, he installed a life-sized model of a crocodile in the middle of a road in a big water-filled pothole to once again highlight the condition of roads in the city. In 2018, he drew a cobweb around a pothole to make civic authorities take notice.
After his artworks gained popularity, he was even invited to draw several portraits, including that of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar at the Students Activity Centre in IIT Bombay.
So, we concluded that the video was not from Jammu and Kashmir at all.
(Written By Yash Mittal)
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