Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
Hindu woman sings bhajan in response to a Muslim man offering namaz from his seat aboard a flight.
Fact
The two videos are of separate incidents and are being shared with a false communal narrative.
Several social media users are circulating a couple of videos, claiming it shows a Hindu woman singing a bhajan in response to a Muslim man offering namaz from his seat aboard a flight.
“Just imagine the amount of Toxicity & Intolerance filled in her. This is what Modi has done to Hindus in 10 years,” read one X post, which has clocked 480.5K views so far. The archived version of the post can be seen here.
Fact Check
Newschecker noticed that the man in the second video was Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, following which we ran a keyword search for “Owaisi flight namaz bhajan”, which did not lead us to any news report about such an incident.
We, however, came across this Hyderabad News Urdu video on Youtube, dated August 26, 2019, stating that Asaduddin Owaisi performed namaz in a plane during travelling, thus indicating that the two viral videos were unrelated. A similar post can be seen here, confirming that the Owaisi video was from 2019.
We then ran a reverse image search on the keyframes of the first video, which led us to a longer, clearer version of the video, and from a different angle, on Youtube, dated March 8, 2024, headlined, “Happy International Women’s day 2024 | Nisha Shivdasani | Indigoairline thank you.”
The video shows Shivdasani, a devotional singer and meditation coach, introducing herself to other passengers and extending wishes on International Women’s Day before singing a bhajan to mark the occasion, which confirms that the two videos are not related to each other.
UPDATE ON 19/09/2024: We reached out to Indigo Airlines, who stated, “The incident referred to here is from March 2024. The passengers in question were singing religious songs. However, there was no report of any other passenger disturbed in this instance.”
Conclusion
Two separate videos, one showing a Hindu woman reciting a bhajan and the other showing a Muslim man praying from his seat, have gone viral on social media with a false communal narrative.
Result: False
Source
Youtube video, Hyderabad News Urdu, August 26, 2019
Youtube video, March 9, 2024
If you would like us to fact-check a claim, give feedback or lodge a complaint, WhatsApp us at 9999499044 or email us at checkthis@newschecker.in. You can also visit the Contact Us page and fill out the form. Follow our WhatsApp channel for more updates.
Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
