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| - Fact Check: How a fight between two Hindu groups in Hyderabad took a communal spin on social media
A video of a group of men from Hyderabad squabbling next to a Ganesha idol went viral on the internet. The video claims that it showed how Hindus were prevented from installing a Ganesh idol by anti-Hindu goons.
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India Today Fact Check
The fight took place between a local Ganesh Chaturthi festival committee and a Hindu family in Hyderabad - who objected to setting up of a Ganesha pandal near their land. Local police, however, confirmed that there is no communal angle in the incident.
While most parts of the country witnessed muted Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations beginning August 22, states like Telangana decided to ban celebrations in the form of pandals, mass gatherings and processions in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The decision though has run into stiff opposition from right-wing organisations and festival committees.
Amidst this, a video of a group of men from Hyderabad squabbling next to a Ganesha idol went viral on the internet. The video claims that it showed how Hindus were prevented from installing a Ganesh idol by anti-Hindu goons.
The caption to one such 1:10 minutes-long video uploaded on Twitter reads, “This is happening in Hyderabad & not Pakistan Some local goons were opposing to the installation of Shri Ganesha’s statue & damaged it too, then some brothers had to bash them KCR thinks that he’s the next Nizam is teaming up with Razakars #AntiHinduKCR”
This is happening in Hyderabad & not Pakistan
Some local goons were opposing to the installation of Shri Ganesha’s statue & damaged it too,then some brothers had to bash them
KCR thinks that he’s the next Nizam is teaming up with Razakars#AntiHinduKCR pic.twitter.com/0gEIQJ4IRX— Ashish Jaggi (@AshishJaggi_1) August 23, 2020
Netizens believe that the instance shown in the video is that of a communal clash, between Hindu and Muslim communities in Hyderabad, over the installation of the Ganesha idol. Three Police officers are also present in the video trying to pull away the men fighting each other.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the claim is misleading. The fight took place between two Hindu groups and has nothing to do with the Muslim community or any kind of an ‘anti-Hindu’ group.
The video was also shared on Facebook with similar claims.
The archived version of the posts can be found here, here and here.
AFWA probe
With the help of the InVid tool and appropriate keywords, we found the video in question shared by a Twitter user with a Telugu caption. According to this tweet, the incident happened in the Balagunj area of Lal Darwaza in Hyderabad’s Moghalpura.
When contacted, A. Ravi Kumar, the Station Head Officer (SHO) of Moghalpura station said that the incident took place between two Hindu groups and there is no communal angle to it.
“Since the last 20 years, the local people have been installing a Lord Ganesha statue on a government property in Balagunj area where the said fight happened on August 22. Over the years, there was a permanent pandal constructed for Lord Ganesha on that land. However, two years ago, a Hindu man bought the land near the pandal. He filed a complaint to the local authorities that the celebrations in that pandal are violating his family's privacy. Following which, a few months ago the local body removed the pandal,” the SHO said.
“This time the festival committee along with a few right-wing groups came to install the Ganesha statue as usual and the man and his family objected. That is how the entire dispute erupted,” he added.
AFWA also spoke to Balagunj temple committee member Jittu who rubbished the claim of communal angle in the matter. He also said the idol was already broken by the time they brought it to the area.
“The fight was just between a local Ganesh Chaturthi festival committee and a Hindu family. Also, unlike claimed in the viral posts, the idol was not destroyed during the fight. It was already broken while transporting it to Balagunj.”
AFWA also reached out to MA Rasheed, ACP, Faluknuma Division, who confirmed to us that there are no reports of communal tension in the Lal Darwaza area on the event of Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations.
Hence the claim that the video purportedly shows Hindus being prevented from installing a Ganesha idol by anti-Hindu goons is misleading. The fight was between members of the same faith.
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