A video of a small boy on a pilgrimage to the hill shrine of Sabarimala crying inside a bus after being separated from his father and pleading for help from a police officer in Kerala has gone viral.
Though the video showed the police officer trying to console him and the child feeling reassured after seeing his father, many Right Wing accounts on X (formerly Twitter) spread a false narrative that the boy who is observing the Ayyappa deeksha, was detained by the Kerala police. Some of these accounts also alleged that the Kerala government was committing ‘atrocities’ against Hindus.
Sabarimala is currently in the news because of a heavy rush of pilgrims who have complained of inadequate measures by authorities to streamline the crowd.
An X account with the username Mr Sinha, who claims to be a Hindu rights activist, shared the video with the caption “Condition of Hindus in Kerala. They didn't even spare a kid.
Rishi Bagree, another BJP supporter with nearly four lakh followers, shared the video with the claim, “Plight of Hindus in Kerala where the govt authorities cracked down on Devotees. They didn’t even spare children.”
“A fearful child’s cries at the Sabarimala shrine will leave you numb… He was looking for his father, who had gone missing amidst poor arrangement for Hindu devotees… The Pinarayi Govt wants Hindu Temple funds but gives back nothing. #SaveKerala now or else it may be too late,” posted BJP’s IT Cell chief Amit Malviya.
However, in the video shared by these right-wing accounts notorious for spreading hatred, it is evident that the boy can be heard crying ‘Appa Appa’ (dad). And shortly a police man tries to comfort him, assuring that his father would be found. Within a few minutes his father can be seen meeting the boy.
Several right-wing accounts however spread false information about the incident. The colour of the bus also made it convenient to manipulate the audience to claim that the boy was detained in a police vehicle. However, upon closer examination it can be seen that the bus belongs to the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation.
The Kerala police is yet to issue a statement regarding this deliberate mischief.
The X platform handle of Congress in Kerala too used the picture of the same boy, along with another crying child, to criticise the Kerala government over its failure to address grievances of pilgrims in Sabarimala.
When critics called out the Congress party handle for spreading the RW narrative, it said that just because some hatemongers used the same photo we used doesn't mean that we both are saying the same thing. "The photo is not key to the post, it was used for representational purposes only because children are suffering the worst," said the INC Kerala handle.