A video showing an argument between a few burqa-wearing girls and an elderly Hindu woman on a bus is being widely circulated on social media, claiming that Muslim women are not allowing other women to travel in public buses in Kerala without a burqa. In this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing Muslim women not allowing other women to travel in public buses in Kerala without a burqa.
Fact: There is no communal angle involved in this incident. The viral video shows students of Khansa Women’s College in Kasaragod, Kerala, arguing about a private bus not stopping at the newly constructed bus stop near their college. According to reports, this incident took place inside a bus on the Kumbla-Mulleria Road near Khansa Mahila College in the Kasaragod district of Kerala in October 2023. Asha, the elderly woman seen in the video arguing with burqa-clad students, as well as the principal and local Kumbla police, clarified that there is no communal angle involved in this incident. The Kerala police also booked a case against such false news. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Factly previously debunked the same video in Telugu when it went viral in October 2023 with the same claim. This video shows an incident of a confrontation between students of the Khansa Women’s College in Kasaragod, Kerala, with another female passenger and the bus operator over the driver refusing to halt the bus near their college bus stop.
By conducting a relevant keyword search on the internet, we found several news reports (here, here, and here) and videos (here, and here) published by various media organizations from Kerala about this incident.
According to these reports, the viral video shows a dispute between college students, the bus operator, and a woman passenger over halting the bus at their college. The incident took place inside the bus in Bhaskara Nagar on the Kumbla-Mulleria Road near Khansa Mahila College in the Kasaragod district of Kerala in October 2023. These reports further state that Khansa Mahila College students have been demanding for a long time to establish a bus stop at their college. The RTO recently permitted new stops for private buses but the bus in the video did not stop at one such newly commissioned stop near Khansa Mahila College, which angered the students as they had to walk longer to reach their college. The students protested by standing in front of the bus since the private city buses did not stop that day. At the same time, the college students had an argument with a woman named Asha who was on the bus.
According to an India Today report, Asha, speaking with India Today, stated that she became angry when the students trampled her foot while boarding the bus, leading to an argument over stopping the bus. She also clarified that the students did not use any religious words against her. Below is the Telugu translation of what the students said to the woman in the viral video: ‘You are not supporting us; you oppose us because you do not fully understand our plight. If your children face the same problem, you will also stand by us.”
As this incident video went viral, the principal of Khansa Women’s College and the local Kumbla police officials clarified that the only issue in this dispute inside the bus was that buses were not stopping at the recently constructed bus stop, and there was no religious or communal angle to the incident. According to a Times of India report, the cyber wing of the Kasaragod police has initiated suo motu proceedings against an ‘X’ handle for posting this incident video with false propaganda. The FIR registered by the police can be found here.
To sum up, an old video of a student protest over the stopping of a bus in Kerala is being shared with a false communal narrative.
