A cropped video featuring a singer performing a medley of Islamic and Hindu chants at a Trinamool Congress rally has surfaced with false claims that it shows the aarti of goddess Durga during a Navratri event in West Bengal.
BOOM found that the video is from July 21 Martyr's Day Rally organised by the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata last year. The portion where the singer refers to lyrics about communal harmony within the song has been omitted in the viral video.
In the video the singer can be heard performing Islamic chants combined with a Hindu strotam from a stage. Panoramic visuals of the area show hundreds of people gathered on the street, along with posters of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The video is being circulated with a Hindi caption that translates to, "This is West Bengal, if you also want that such aarti of Mata Rani should be performed in your place during Navratri, then you can vote for anyone except BJP. It's your wish?*"
(Original Text in Hindi: *ये पश्चिम बंगाल है, यदि आप भी चाहते हैं कि नवरात्रि में माता रानी की ऐसी आरती आपके यहाँ भी हो तो भाजपा को छोड़कर किसी को भी वोट कर सकते हैं।* *मर्ज़ी आपकी ???*)
Click here to view the post and here for an archive. BOOM also received the video in its Tipline with a verification request.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on one of the keyframes from the vitral video and found several posts from July, 2023 carrying the same video.
Taking a cue, we went through the live streaming of the July 21 Martyr's Day Rally organised by the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata and identified the same segment broadcasted from their official YouTube channel. The viral segment can be watched between 44:08 minutes and 45:56 minutes.
In the live streaming, the singer, Santanu Roy Chowdhury, is seen performing the same song, which features recitation of Islamic chants along with a Hindu strotam, starting at 40:14 minutes. Before performing the song, Roy Chowdhury states, "I will conclude with the next song, which was recorded at the request of our honourable Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee when she first assumed office in our state."
We also heard the lyrics of the song, which include phrases like "Religion is not written in the child's mind" and "(a child) does not know much about Ram and Rahim," indicating that the song aims to convey a message of communal harmony. However, the same segment is not present in the now-viral video, which is a cropped version of the song performed by the singer.