Fact Check: Video of residents’ calling for prayers is from West Bengal, not Mumbai
Loudspeakers are seen on the mosque’s dome.
Gulf Today Report
Ever since the loudspeaker row gained momentum in India and especially in the state of Maharashtra, a video of people standing in the streets to make calls for prayers is doing the rounds.
As a matter of fact, an independent Facebook fact checker revealed that that azan video is not from Mumbai.
It was found that the video was from Kolkata. It was shared around April 2020.
Local media houses widely shared the video as linked to Maharashtra loudspeaker row.
The claims were false.
A thorough investigation revealed that the signboards seen in the video minute-long clip could be found in Howrah, West Bengal, and not in Mumbai.
The shop addresses on the boards show Howrah written on the place for addresses.
What remains true is that the Maharashtra's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government made police permission compulsory for using loudspeakers at all religious places in the state.
Any unauthorised use of loudspeakers at all religious places or religious functions would invite strict punitive action against the violators, Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil said, as the 'azaan' row threatened to become a vexed issue between the MVA and the Opposition.
Walse-Patil said that a detailed notification on the proposal with the guidelines would be issued in the next couple of days by the Home Department.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Walse-Patil discussed the issue in detail and now Director-General of Police Rajnish Sheth and Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey will work out the modalities to implement the policy.
"The notification shall be issued in the next couple of days. Clear instructions have been given to ensure that the loudspeakers are used within the legally permissible limits and violators would face strict legal action," warned Walse-Patil.
The MVA decision comes amid a raging controversy over the use of loudspeakers at mosques raked up last week by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray and endorsed by activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Among other things, Raj Thackeray had issued an "ultimatum" of May 3 to the state government to ensure all mosques' loudspeakers are "silenced or dismantled", failing which the MNS workers would blare out Hanuman Chalisa on loudspeakers outside mosques in retaliation, raising apprehensions of a law and order situation.
Meanwhile, state Congress President Nana Patole has demanded that the government should ban the Opposition parties' rallies and processions that have the potential to ignite communal tensions and are intended to divert public attention from bigger issues confronting the country.
However, the MNS is adamant on its stand and said they would go ahead with their 'Hanuman Chalisa' programme if loudspeakers from all mosques are not removed by May 3, and expressed their readiness for any action by the government.
Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale on Tuesday reiterated his Republican Party of India (A) does not agree with MNS President Raj Thackeray's demand for removing loudspeakers from mosques by May 3.
Talking to mediapersons, he said even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not support Raj Thackeray's controversial stand on the issue that has raked up a political row in the state.
"We oppose the demand of MNS to remove loudspeakers from mosques.
Even the founder of Shiv Sena, the late Balasaheb Thackeray was against any such demand. I feel divisions should not be created between religions like this," Athawale urged.
Though certain BJP leaders in Mumbai and other parts have endorsed the MNS stance, Athawale claimed that the BJP is not in favour of the call for banning loudspeakers on mosques.
