A 2018 Times Of India newspaper clipping on an expat scientist from Vadodara, Gujarat, and his friends being denied entry into a Garba event in Atlanta, United States after the organisers allegedly said that their last names didn't sound Hindu, is being shared on social media as a recent incident.
The clipping is being shared as recent reports surfaced around the country about Muslims being barred from entering Garba venues during the Hindu festival amid calls by right-wing outfits to bar Muslims from participating.
The viral newspaper clipping headline reads, "Vadodara Scientist thrown out of US garba by Gujaratis" and the excerpt reading, "Surname was not Hindu enough say organisers"
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The viral clipping is being shared widely on Facebook without any mention that the incident is not recent.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral news clipping is from October 2018 from a Times Of India news report on Karan Jani, an astrophysicist from Vadodara settled in the United States had alleged that he along with his three friends were denied entry at a Garba venue in Atlanta by the organisers because their surnames "didn't appear to be Hindu"
A keyword search with the same headline led us to the October 15, 2018 Times of India article reporting on the incident quoting Jani who had taken to Twitter and Facebook to allege that he was thrown out of the venue by the organisers at Sri Shakti Mandir.
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We also found Jani's tweeted thread from October 13, 2018, narrating the incident. Jani states that at Shakti Mandir in Atlanta, he and his friends were denied entry from playing garba alleging he was told, "You don't look Hindu and last name in your IDs don't sound Hindu."