By Oishani Bhattacharya
A video showing three men in saffron clothes has gone viral with many users claiming they were imposters. In the video, some individuals question the three men to check their knowledge of Hinduism. Social media users claim that the men were Muslims disguised as Hindu monks.
The person recording the video confronts the three men in saffron robes, asking, “Recite at least one shloka (a verse in Sanskrit), or we won’t let you go. How many gods’ names do you know?” To this, one of the men responds, “We worship Bholenath.” The recorder then challenges them, asking how they could be true sadhus if they only know one deity’s name. The crowd gathered around them could then be heard labelling them as ‘Bangladeshi’ and ‘Rohingya’ and some proposing to beat them up. The man recording the video then tells the crowd that one of the sadhus is actually named ‘Salman’ and shows the crowd an ID card to support his claim.
Right-wing propaganda outlet OpIndia (@OpIndia_in) published a report carrying Zee 24 Kalak’s tweet. They posted a link to the report on their official X handle, with the caption: “Salman and his companions were begging wearing saffron clothes. Their true identity was revealed through an ID card. They could neither recite any shloka nor properly name the Hindu gods and goddesses.”
Gujarati News Channel Zee 24 Kalak (@Zee24Kalak) tweeted about the incident on November 2 with a caption in Gujarati that can be translated as: “Salman, disguised as a sadhu, caught! Fraud exposed as ID check reveals the truth of a sadhu begging in Surat.”
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
