A video of a mob vandalising a permanent concrete board with KSR Bengaluru station written in different languages has gone viral. The text on the video reads, “Sorry Northies! but we in the South don’t tolerate Hindi signs.”
A social media user shared the video with a caption suggesting that the viral video is a recent one, during the current Congress government in Karnataka.
The video is shared with a caption that reads, “Hey @INCIndia this is Karnataka, Youth and citizen gave mandate to you for job and better life, What you gave them? Stones so that they can extinct Hindi language from Bangalore. Few days back @siddaramaiah said if your are in Karnataka then speak Kannada. Instead of working for the people giving, finding investment for state you are working on hatred. You are the one who gave stone in youth hands. A request to all country please see what is going on in Karnataka Himachal before giving votes to Congress. (sic)”
SouthCheck found that the claim is misleading. We found that the viral video is from 2020 when the BJP government was in power in Karnataka.
On doing a Google reverse image search, we found the same video uploaded by IB Times on September 14, 2020, with the title, ‘Protestors tear down Hindi signboard at KSR Railway station bengaluru’.
The caption read, “KSR Railway station on Monday was vandalised by protestors who tore down a Hindi signboard at the entrance of the station. This was with regards to the protest over the celebration of Hindi Diwas in the country.”
Taking a clue, we searched with appropriate keywords and found the incident was also reported by The News Minute on September 14, 2020.
The report stated that pro-Kannada activists had vandalised a signboard at the Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna (KSR) Railway Station in Bengaluru during a protest against the imposition of Hindi. The protest was done on Hindi Divas, a day dedicated to celebrating the Hindi language. Those vandalising the signboard were Members of Karunaada Sevakaru, a pro-Kannada organisation. The report also had a screenshot of the video.
We found the report was also published by The Times of India on September 14, 2020.
In 2020, the BJP was in power in Karnataka. Congress came to power in Karnataka in 2023.
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral post is old and is unrelated to the current Congress government in Karnataka.
