Fact Check: Video of saffron-coloured name board being damaged in Karnataka shared with communal spin
The video depicts workers from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) damaging name boards of shops that were not written in Kannada.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 13 March 2024 10:05 AM GMT
Screengrabs from the viral post. (Source: X/@narayanwal2)
Fact: The video depicts workers from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) damaging name boards of shops that were not written in Kannada.
A video showing a group of people damaging the name board of Burger King and a cloth shop, Ramdev Hi Fashion in Bengaluru, is viral on social media. Claims accompanying the video suggest that the name board of the cloth shop was targeted due to its saffron colour.
“By voting for Congress, you cannot use saffron colour in your shop, home, locality, temple etc. -- Karnataka,” wrote an X user who shared the video.
Several X users shared the video claiming the same. (Click here and here to see the archived post.) The video is also viral on Facebook.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading, as the video depicts workers from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) damaging name boards of shops that were not written in Kannada.
Upon conducting a reverse image search of the video's keyframe, we found that the same video was posted by an Instagram account named NewsHamster on February 24. According to the account, the video captures BBMP workers removing the name boards of shops not written in Kannada.
Based on this lead, we ran a keyword search and came across a video report of India Today published on February 23, titled “Bengaluru’s Language War: BBMP Cracks Down on English Signboards Ahead of Deadline.” The report featured footage of workers removing English letters from the name board of several establishments, including Ramdev Hi Fashion and Burger King, mirroring the scenes depicted in the viral video.
According to the report, despite the BBMP's deadline of February 28th, which required 60% Kannada usage in name boards across various establishments in the state, civic body workers in the city initiated actions against businesses with English name boards well before the stipulated deadline.
Using Street View on Google Maps, we located the 'Ramdev Hi Fashion' shop at Thambuchetty Palya near the Oriental Bank Of Commerce in Bengaluru. NewsMeter reached out to the owner of the shop, who confirmed that his shop board was damaged by BBMP workers because the name board was in English.
Therefore, it is evident that the name board of the textile shop in Karnataka was not damaged because it was painted in saffron colour. Hence, the claim is misleading.
