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By Nilofar Absar
Photographs of iftar being served post namaz at an HDFC branch in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki were widely shared on Facebook with a communal spin. The incident took place during the month of Ramzan around April 24, 2022, within the bank premises.
The viral images were shared with the caption: “These photographs aren’t from a mosque but taken at a bank. It is from an HDFC bank branch in Barabanki. Roza, iftar and namaz are being offered here on a regular basis. This has been happening for years now. This false pretence of “secularism” must be strongly opposed.”
Pro-BJP propaganda outlet OpIndia reported the event while stating that “only Muslim customers” were invited to the iftar. It also claimed that SP leader Osama Ansari graced the occasion with his presence. The event upset members of the Hindu nationalist organisation Bajrang Dal. Sunil Singh, the organisation’s convener for the Awadh province, is quoted in the OpIndia article, as stating, “Today they offered prayers in a bank. Tomorrow they will read namaz somewhere else. The administration should take action against them.”
Fact-check
Alt News performed a keyword search in Hindi and came across several reports describing the event as a great example of “Hindu-Muslim” unity.
We also found a detailed video report covering the event on YouTube.
( Link https://youtu.be/7RBKcYUicoc)
The following excerpts with time-stamps, from the above video report, are essential to understand the bank’s rationale behind organising the iftar party and to establish that Hindu festivals are also celebrated within the bank premises:
At 1:35/6:11, the deputy manager of the bank branch can be heard saying, “All customers regardless of their religion have been invited to the iftar party.” This statement directly disputes the unfounded claim made in the OpIndia article about only Muslim customers being invited to the iftar party.
Read the full story here:- https://www.altnews.in/iftar-held-at-hdfc-barabanki-given-false-communal-spin/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=newpost