A video accompanied by a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that devotees of Lord Ram were marching in Ayodhya to declare India as Hindu Rashtra. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of devotees of Lord Ram marching in Ayodhya to declare India as Hindu Rashtra.
Fact: The video shows a religious procession named ‘Durgamata Daud’ in Miraj, Maharashtra taken in 2019 and is not related to Ayodhya. ‘Durgamata Daud’ is an annual religious procession taken out on the occasion of Dussehra in Miraj town of Sangli district. There are no recent news reports of a march by the devotees of Lord Ram to declare India as a Hindu Rashtra. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When reverse image search is done on the screenshots of the video with relevant keywords, the same video is found on YouTube. The YouTube video was uploaded on 27 October 2019 by ‘Akshay Shinde’, with the title, “Durgamata Daud Miraj Division.” Miraj is a city in the Sangli district of Maharashtra, and not from Ayodhya which is in UP.
Taking the cue that the video could be from Miraj, we found several video reports when searched on google with relevant keywords. ‘Durgamata Daud’ is an annual religious procession organized by Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan during Dussehra in Miraj town of Sangli district. Several videos of the procession in Maharashtra with similar attire can be seen here, here, and here.
At 0:03 seconds in the video, one can see hoarding of a shop in the background of the procession, named ‘Laxmi Sports’. In Google Maps, a store named ‘New Shree Laxmi Sports’ was found in Miraj, Sangli district. The hoarding matches with the one seen in the viral video.
Further, Paramhans Acharya Maharaj demanded that India be declared a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, or else he said that he would take a ‘Jal samadhi’ in Ayodhya’s Sarayu river on 02 October 2021. Having been placed under house arrest, he put out a statement that he would agitate for ‘Hindu Rashtra’ on 07 November 2023 at Ramlila Maidan. However, there are no recent news reports of a march by the devotees of Lord Ram to declare India as a Hindu Rashtra.
To sum it up, an old video of a religious procession in Maharashtra is shared as devotees of Lord Ram marching in Ayodhya to declare India as Hindu Rashtra.
