2018 Story of Scientist Being Denied Entry to Garba Event in US Shared as Recent

The scientist, Karan Jani, had shared the details of the incident on his Twitter account in 2018.

The article was published on 15 October 2018, two days after scientist Karan Jani shared the incident on his verified Twitter account.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A newspaper clipping about a scientist from Gujarat's Vadodara being denied entry to a garba event in the United States of America (USA) is being widely shared on social media as a recent incident. This comes after the festival of Navratri concluded on 4 October 2022.

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar posts can be seen here, here, and here.)

However, the incident dates back to 13 October 2018, when an Indian scientist Karan Jani and his friends were denied entry to a garba event, held at Shakti Mandir in Atlanta, USA for reportedly not "looking Hindu" and not having "Hindu sounding last names."

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We noticed that the article carried Tushar Tere's byline, a journalist associated with the Times Group. It also showed that some information was taken from Karan Jani's Twitter account.

The article was penned by Tushar Tere.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

Using relevant keywords, we looked for more information and reports on the incident. The search led us to an article published by the same journalist on The Times of India in October 2018.

The article was published on 15 October 2018.

(Source: Times of India/Altered by The Quint)

We also found a Twitter thread by Jani, where he shared a video saying that they were denied entry from the garba event because they "didn't look Hindu" and the last name on their ID's "didn't sound Hindu." The thread was posted on 13 October 2018.

He shared details of the incident, saying that his Konkani friend was pulled out of line and was told that she was "Ismaili." Jani mentioned that a senior person in the organising team spoke to them in "crude and demeaning" language.

(Note: Swipe right to view the rest of the thread.)

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

We found reports published by The Indian Express, Hindustan Times and NDTV which were published in October 2018 as well.

Clearly, a four-year-old incident of a scientist being denied entry to a garba event in Atlanta, USA is being shared as a recent incident.

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