Old visuals from Karnataka falsely linked to Ram Navami celebrations in Bihar in March 2023

Context

India celebrated Ram Navami, the birthday of the Hindu god Lord Rama, on March 30, 2023. Following this, several states saw clashes between two religious communities before and after processions were held as part of the festival. The Times of India reported on April 2, 2023, that after clashes were reported in Bihar's Rohtas district on March 31, approximately 1,000 personnel from about ten companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), including CRPF, SSB, and ITBP were posted to the state. The situation has been tense in the area, causing Home Minister Amit Shah to cancel his rally at Sasaram, Bihar. The Bihar police have also advised people not to believe in rumors.

Several narratives about the incidents have made their way to social media. A post with two photos showing a massive crowd carrying saffron flags is viral on Koo and Twitter, alleging that in Bihar, '3 lakh Ram Bhakts of Purniya' gathered on the streets for the Ram Navami procession and created history.

However, these images are unrelated to the 2023 Ram Navami celebrations. 

In Fact

A reverse image search showed that the photo showed a celebration held in Karnataka that dates back to 2019 at the very least. On December 12, 2019, Nivane Kalanath Bhat tweeted a festival video and captioned it, "These type of grand celebrations of Datta Jayanti in Chikmagalur, is possible only during BJP govt." The keyframes of this video match the viral images perfectly.

Similarly, a YouTube channel posted the video on December 19, 2021, stating that the video showed a procession on MG Road in Chikmagalur, Karnataka, during the Datta Jayanthi celebrations. Another page, Samanvaya Karnataka, posted the same video on YouTube on December 18, 2021, with a caption in Kannada, which translates to 'Datta Jayanthi Chikmagalur' in English. 

While we could not ascertain the year in which this photo or video was taken, the elements in the viral images, such as the buildings, people standing on balconies, the neon lighting board in between, and the store names, all match the reference videos mentioned above, proving the image is neither recent nor from a Ram Navami procession. 

Further, in one of the images, a store's name, "Gujarath Sales," is visible in the corner, above which is text in Kannada, also clarifying the viral image is from Karnataka. Additionally, no report claims that a record or history was created during one of the processions held during Ram Navami.

The Verdict

Social media users have falsely linked old Datta Jayanthi celebration images from Karnataka to a procession held in Bihar during Ram Navami celebrations in March 2023. Several elements in the two photos prove they are not of the recent Ram Navami celebrations. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.