Story:
Police beat Muslim old man for not Chanting Jai Shri Ram
Other Versions
(Hindi)
हिंदुस्तान में रहना होगा, जय श्री राम कहना होगा ?
राम जी से पंगा लोगे तो नंगा कर के मारेंगे
Screenshot of the story on a Facebook post
Fact Check:
A story doing rounds on social media purports to show Indian Police beat a Muslim old man badly for not Chanting Jai Shri Ram. Jai Shri Ram means “Hail Lord Rama,” praising the Hindu deity. The story is shared as yet another one among the allegations relating to mob lynching against Muslims. They come with the slogan – हिंदुस्तान में रहना होगा, जय श्री राम कहना होगा – meaning if you must live in India, you should say Jai Shri Ram. No, the claims about police beating old man for not chanting Jai Shri Ram are not true.
About the Video and Claims
The claims in question appeared on Facebook and other social media platforms from early July 2019. The video shows a group of policemen beating a Muslim old man badly with sticks before taking him away, despite his pleading. It also shows policemen beating another man similarly. Importantly, the video carries a Hindi text in between saying – राम जी से पंगा लोगे तो नंगा कर के मारेंगे – meaning if you mess with Ram, (we) will beat you naked. Among the ongoing allegations of mob lynching and forced chanting of Jai Shri Ram in India, this story appears like another trigger to the row.
Police Did Not Beat Old Man to Say Jai Shri Ram
Firstly, the Police dress code in video does not belong to any Indian force; no such said incident is reported. The video in fact appeared online earlier in 2016 claiming to show ‘police assaulting unarmed and innocent elderly citizens‘.
As we searched for the whereabouts of the video, we found the video is from Pakistan and shows couple of incidents from the infamous Model Town tragedy (Lahore massacre). On 17th June 2014, a violent clash ensued between the Punjab Police of Pakistan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek activists. Pakistan police injured many innocent unarmed people badly and several protesters were also killed in the police gunfire. So, as mentioned in the story, the video is not from India. It is in no way related to anyone forcing and beating the Muslim old man to say Jai Shri Ram.
As a matter of fact, internet space has witnessed many such allegations of mob lynching involving Hindus forcing people, especially Muslims to say Jai Shri Ram. While some of the incidents appear true, many of them turned out fake.
Fake Crime Allegations around Jai Shri Ram Slogans
In many of the cases allegedly involving beating people for not chanting Jai Shri Ram, investigations found they were either fake or given a communal angle. India Today website indiatoday.in reports some such cases.
In Kanpur, two people fought under the influence of the alcohol. When others came, one of the persons claimed he was beaten up for not chanting Jai Shri Ram. A Madrassa student in Bareilly claimed in Aligarh that his skull cap was removed, and he was allegedly tortured in a train. Investigations later revealed it as fake. A group of Madrassa students in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh said some people thrashed them with bats after they refused to chant Jai Shri Ram. The fight was in fact over playing cricket and did not involve any religious slogans. Moreover, like the current story, many fake and misleading ‘news’ stories surface online attributing unrelated crime incidents to chanting Jai Shri Ram.
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