CLAIM

A Facebook user by the name of Rajat Rajan posted an image on January 30, 2020 showing a huge crowd marching on a street.

Using that image, Rajan claimed that in an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (

), 2019 protest in Hyderabad, Ashoka Chakra in the Indian flag was replaced with 'La ilaha illallah', an Islamic Shahada which means “there’s no other god but Allah”.

“A Rudra Hanuman poster puts secularism in danger. But this doesn't put secularism in danger,” Rajan rued.

A Times Fact Check reader shared Rajan’s post with us on our WhatsApp number 8527001433, wanting to know the veracity of the image and the claim.

TRUTH

The image is real and indeed from Hyderabad in

. In an anti-CAA/NRC march, protesters assembled in large numbers near the Lower Tank Bund area of Hyderabad city. One of the Indian flags carried by the protesters had Islamic Shahada ‘la ilaha illallah’ inscribed in place of the

.

VERIFICATION AND METHODOLOGY

Using keywords ‘Ashok Chakra Indian flag CAA’, we found a tweet posted by journalist and political analyst

on January 4, 2020.

The tweet carried the same image with the text that reads “From the anti-CAA march in Hyderabad today, what appears to be the Islamic Shahada (There is no god but the Allah) printed on the Indian tricolour in place of the Ashoka Chakra.”

Ranganathan quoted a tweet dated January 4, 2020 from the verified handle of The New Indian Express - Hyderabad. The tweet by The New Indian Express had the same image credited to photojournalist Vinay Madapu.

One of our Arabic-literate colleagues in Navbharat Times confirmed that the text replacing Ashok Chakra in the Indian tricolor was indeed Islamic Shahada ‘la ilaha illallah’ (in Arabic).

VERDICT

Times Fact Check has found that the image of Ashok Chakra being replaced by Islamic Shahada ‘la ilaha illallah’ in Indian flag by anti-CAA protestors from Hyderabad is real.