In the context of Ayodhya Ram Mandir’s inauguration ceremony, which is being held today, i.e. 22 January 2024, a video is doing the rounds of social media claiming that the digital payments application Paytm is offering free bus tickets to its users travelling to Ayodhya. Let’s fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Paytm offers a free bus ticket to its users travelling to Ayodhya with the promo code BUSAYODHYA.
Fact: Although this is a legitimate offer by Paytm, which reportedly started on 19 January 2024, the number of users that can avail of this offer has been capped at 1000, and currently, it is no longer available as 1000 tickets have already been booked. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
To check the veracity of the viral claim, we first searched the internet with relevant keywords, leading us to multiple news reports (here, here, and here) on such an offer released by Paytm.
We learned from the reports that this offer has a condition that only the first 1000 users can avail of this free bus ticket to Ayodhya using a promo code which reads ‘BUSAYODHYA.’
We tried booking a ticket to Ayodhya from the nation’s capital, New Delhi, to check if the offer still exists. But, when we tried to avail of the offer using the promo code ‘BUSAYODHYA,’ we received a message saying that ‘..the first 1000 users have already availed the free ticket offer..’ This makes it clear that the viral video gives the users partial information about the offer and skips the terms and conditions of the offer, which is vital information in such cases.
To sum up, Paytm’s free bus ticket to Ayodhya offer is no longer available; it is only for the first 1000 users who book the ticket.
