Fact Check: RBI did not ask banks to print essence of Gita on passbooks

New Delhi (Vishvas News): A message is going viral on various social media platforms and WhatsApp groups in the name of instructions from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It is being claimed that the RBI has instructed all the banks to print the essence of the Gita, the holy book of Hindus, on the last page of the bank passbooks. Assuming it to be true, users are making it viral. Vishvas News fact-checked the claim made in the viral post. This turned out to be completely baseless. No such instructions have been given by RBI.

Claim:

Facebook user Haidar Ali posted on February 13, claiming that RBI has instructed all banks to print Geeta ‘saar’ on the last page of the passbook.

The image used in the post read, “RBI’s instructions to all banks. Get the Gita Saar printed on the last page of the passbook. ‘Tum kya le ke aaye the, kya le k jaoge. Kyun rote ho, tumhara kya tha jo kho gya. Jo liya yahi se liya, jo diya yahi diya. Jo aaj tumhara hai, kal kisi aur ka tha. Parson kisi aur ka ho jayega’.”

Assuming the post to be true, several other users also began sharing it. Its archived version can be viewed here.

Investigation:

Vishvas News first took the help of Google open search tool to verify the viral post in the name of RBI directive. On searching here, we did not find a single news item corroborating the claim that RBI has instructed banks to print Gita ‘saar’ on the back of passbooks.

From the search, we came to know that this post has been going viral for the past several years. During the search, we found an old tweet on the fact check handle of the Central government’s Press Information Bureau. This was done on December 23, 2020. Describing the viral post as fake, it was written in the tweet that RBI has not issued this instruction for banks.

If RBI had announced any such order, it must have been on its website. We tried to find instructions regarding Gita ‘saar’ there also, but couldn’t find anything in the search.

Vishvas News contacted RBI spokesperson to pursue the investigation. He said the claim being made in the viral post is completely baseless. It has been viral since last many years. No such instructions have been issued by RBI, he clarified.

At the end of the investigation, the user who posted the fake post was investigated. In the social scanning of Facebook user Santosh Kharwar, it was found that more than 5,000 people follow the user. He is a resident of Siwan in Bihar.