Fact Check: Did Aavin milk packets in TN contain Christmas greetings? Here's the truth
A photo of a milk packet with Christmas greetings is going viral on social media with the claim that the Tamil Nadu government is “doing indirect religious propaganda”
By Newsmeter Network Published on 4 Jan 2022 9:00 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A photo of a milk packet with Christmas greetings is going viral on social media with the claim that the Tamil Nadu government is "doing indirect religious propaganda".
The text accompanying the image read, "Merry Christmas for the spirit of today. Is the government doing indirect religious propaganda? Why not welcome Deepavali like this in Avinpal. Is this what the secular state understands??"
NewsMeter received the viral claim on WhatsApp.
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Fact Check:
The claim is false.
NewsMeter ran a reverse image search that led us to a Facebook post. The post said that the milk packet with the Christmas greetings belonged to Aavin Company from Tamil Nadu.
We used Google Lens to translate the text on the milk packet and found that it is called "Aavin Green Magic" by Aavin company and it is sold in Tamil Nadu. We also found a tweet by News7 Tamil from December 2021 along with a photo of milk packets with Christmas greetings.
We also found many photos on social media of Aavin milk packets with greeting for Diwali, Ramadan, and Pongal.
A Deccan Chronicle report from 14 November 2019 had reported that the state-owned Aavin was planning to roll out milk packets with couplets from Tirukkural printed on them. "Messages greeting the people of various faiths during important festivals were being printed on the sachets before being distributed to the cardholders or sold in the open market. Now, Kural will make an appearance on the packets regularly," it said.
You Turn had earlier debunked the claim that Aavin was printing only Christmas greetings and said that on 4 November 2021, it had printed Diwali wishes on the milk packets.
Hence, the claim is false. Tamil Nadu's Aavin Company printed greetings for Diwali, Ramadan, and Pongal on its milk packets and not just for Christmas.
