A scuba diver from Gujarat raises a saffron flag underwater to celebrate the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, not Indian Navy

This viral video shows a scuba diver from Gujarat raising saffron flag under water to celebrate the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He has no link to Indian Navy.

The consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya took place on 22 January with Prime Minister Narendra Modi performing the rituals. Several visuals of people celebrating the consecration have been shared online. A video showing a scuba diver swimming underwater with a saffron flag adorned with the image of Hindu God, Hanuman, is going viral on social media. It is claimed that this is an effort by the Indian Navy to mark the occasion of the Ram Temple consecration.

This video is shared with the caption, “By Indian Navy…. Under water..Jay shree Ram”.

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Fact Check-

At first we checked whether the Indian Navy had officially declared any events regarding the Ram Temple’s consecration. No such announcement was discovered on their official social media handles or in media.

By performing a reverse image search on Google whose results led us to a tweet by

The Press Trust of India (PTI) along with similar viral video. It was uploaded on 19 January, 2024 with a caption “VIDEO | A scuba diver raises a saffron flag with Lord Hanuman’s image under seawater at Shivrajpur Beach in Gujarat.”

Keeping this in mind, we performed a relevant keyword search, leading us to a Gujarati news report shared by Gujarati Jagran. The report mentioned the scuba diver’s name to be Karamanbha Chamdiya and it nowhere mentioned about him being a member of the Indian Navy.

In further search, we discovered an Instagram profile named Karan Chamadiya who shared scuba diving videos and photographs from Shivrajpur Beach. Then we reached out to that person via the phone number provided in an Instagram post.

He confirmed that it shows him in the viral video and he is not related to the Indian Navy. “It is our own business; I am from Gujarat and have been scuba diving for a long time. This video was captured two three days before the consecration ceremony. I did it out of devotion to make the consecration event of the Ayodhya Ram Temple unique” he added.

Therefore, the claim that the viral video shows an Indian Navy representative scuba diving with a saffron flag before the Ram Temple Pran Pratishtha is false. 

Conclusion

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. This video does not show an Indian Navy representative scuba diving with a saffron flag to celebrate the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. This viral video shows a scuba diver from Gujarat.