By Archis Chowdhury
An underwater footage showing a civilian scuba diving with a saffron flag with the image of Hindu deity Hanuman has been shared on social media with the false claim that it shows a member of the Indian Navy.
BOOM found that the person in the video is a scuba diving instructor from Gujarat and is not a member of the Indian Navy. Furthermore, an Indian Navy spokesperson rubbished the viral claim as incorrect.
The Ram Temple in Ayodhya was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22, 2024 in the presence of Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Chief Mohan Bhagwat. The post is viral in this backdrop.
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The video was widely shared on multiple social media platforms, with the caption, "By Indian Navy.... Under water..Jay shree Ram.."
Click here, here and here to view such posts on Facebook. Click here, here and here to view such posts on X (formerly Twitter).
Fact Check
BOOM did a keyword search with "scuba diver hanuman flag", which led us to a recent tweet about the video, shared by PTI. It also carried the video of the diver with the Hanuman flag, that is going viral.
The PTI report does not make any mention of the Indian Navy, but mentions that the video was shot at Shivrajpur Beach in Gujarat.
Taking cue from this, we did another keyword search in Gujarati, which led us to a report by Gujarati Jagaran. The report named the diver as Karamanbha Chamdiya, and mentioned that he is a scuba diving instructor. Furthermore, it made no mention of involvement with the Indian Navy.
We reached out to the Indian Navy for a comment, and a spokesperson told us that the viral claim of Indian Navy carrying out the diving session is incorrect.
