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Viral image of Indian flag placed on the ground at Bangladesh tech varsity gate is genuine

An image showing students walking on what appears to be the Indian national flag placed at the entrance of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in Dhaka is viral on social media.

 

Click to view slideshow.

 

The image has been widely shared amid concerns that it is a major snub to a symbol of national pride for Indians.

Alt News has received numerous requests on its WhatsApp helpline number (7600011160) to authenticate the image. 

True or hoax? 

To verify the image, we ran a keyword search (in Bengali) that led us to a news report by Dhakatimes24 from November 29 titled “Kolkata doctor stopped seeing Bangladeshi patients for insult to the Indian flag”. The report led us to a post by a Kolkata doctor named Indranil Saha on Facebook where he avows that he will stop seeing patients from Bangladesh owing to the treatment meted out to the flag. “Aage desh, pore rojgaar” (Country comes first, not income), Saha wrote. The post has received a lot of attention and over 4,000 comments.

The Dhakatimes24 report, however, did not get into who placed the flag and why, but did say that similar cases of the Indian flag being placed on the ground were reported from other universities as well. This includes the cafeteria at Rajshahi Science and Technology University, Noakhali Science and Technology University and Dhaka University.

Alt News reached out to a few students from BUET, who confirmed that the incident took place on November 27 (a day before the Kolkata doctor’s Facebook post). They identified the image as authentic and from their university and mentioned that the banner with the Indian flag design was removed from the university entrance within 24 hours. A student from nearby Dhaka University also corroborated the information. All the students spoke to Alt News on condition of anonymity.

We were also able to procure additional images of BUET’s entrance gate from a different point of view to cross-check the claims. The images are added below:

Click to view slideshow.

Alt News also reached out to a fact-checking journalist from Bangladesh, who confirmed the authenticity of the incident, the viral photo and the claims. This person preferred to remain anonymous.

On investigating, we also found BUET held such demonstrations (by placing country flags on the floor) in previous instances as well. In October, something similar happened with flags of Israel and the USA.

Note that the Flag Code of India, 2002 and the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 clearly mention that if anyone “burns, mutilates, defaces, defiles, disfigures, destroys, tramples upon or *otherwise shows disrespect to or brings into contempt (whether by words, either spoken or written, or by acts) the Indian National Flag or the Constitution of India or any part thereof” at a public place anywhere within public view, they can be imprisoned for up to 3 years, fined or both. Interestingly though, this only applies to such instances within the country.

To sum up, the claim that the Indian national flag was placed on the floor at the entrance of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology is true. The image viral in this connection is not edited or doctored. 

The post Viral image of Indian flag placed on the ground at Bangladesh tech varsity gate is genuine appeared first on Alt News.


This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.