A viral video of a motorcycle rally with men wearing army uniforms and claiming to show 'jawans' raising slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is doctored by tampering with the sound.
The video is going viral with a false claim that the clip shows Indian Army 'soldiers' raising slogans against the BJP and RSS.
BOOM found that the video was shot in Haridwar, Uttarakhand in support of the Indian Army a few days after the 2019 Pulwama attack and that the audio of the controversial sloganeering has been overlaid on the video.
We found that the people taking part in the rally are not soldiers.
We also tracked down a man who was part of the rally and confirmed that no slogans were raised against the BJP or RSS in the rally. We found other videos from the rally which had no such slogans.
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The clip shows a motorcycle rally being taken out on a busy market street. The viral video begins with Hindi slogans which translate to 'Shoot the people belonging to RSS, shoot the people belonging to BJP, shoot the traitors of the country'.
(Hindi: आरएसएस के लालो को गोली मारो सालो को, बीजेपी के लालो को गोली मारों सालों को, देश के इन गद्दारों को गोली मारो सालों को...)
It may be noted here that the inflammatory slogan Desh ke Gaddaro ko was earlier raised by BJP MP Anurag Thakur from the dais of a public rally he was addressing in January 2020.
A caption with the post in Gurmukhi translates to 'Now even the soldiers have come against BJP and RSS, soldiers are also against BJP and RSS'.
(Gurmukhi: ਹੁਣ ਤਾਂ ਫੌਜੀ ਵੀ ,ਬੀ ਜੇ ਪੀ ,ਤੇ ,RSS, ਦੇ ਵਿਰੋਧ ਵਿੱਚ ਅਾ ਗੲੇ,fouji vi aage BJP and R S S de virodh vich)
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Fact Check
BOOM did a keyword search with 'indian soldiers chanting rss ke dalalo ko' and found a fact check on the website pibfactcheck.in from February 2020 on the same video.
It may be noted that pibfactcheck.in is not the official fact checking website of Press Information Bureau and PIB's official Twitter account has called out the website.
The fact check also shared the TikTok link to the original video. We found that the TikTok video does not have any slogans related to the BJP or RSS. The TikTok video has Hindi slogans which translate to 'Shoot the traitors of the country, if you are not with us, wear bangles'.
(Hindi: देश के गद्दारों को गोली मारों सालों को, जो नहीं है साथ में चूड़ी पहनो हाथ में)
Taking cue from this sloganeering, BOOM did a keyword search on Facebook with Hindi words 'पुलवामा जो नहीं है साथ में चूड़ी पहनो हाथ में' and found a post from February 2019 with pictures similar to the rally.
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The Facebook post from the profile of Chauhan Chauhan Vishal shared on February 16, 2019 has photos from a rally showing a man draped in the Indian tricolour. The post has been shared a couple of days after the Pulwama terror attack of February 14, 2019.
The recently viral video too has a similar tricolour-draped man surrounded by men in army fatigue.
We went through Chauhan's profile carefully and found several similar videos and pictures where he can be seen draped in the Indian tricolour and participating in rallies.
BOOM then reached out to Chauhan to find out more details about the video.
Chauhan told BOOM over the phone that he lives in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. He said the viral video shows a rally taken out in the honour of CRPF jawans who were martyred in the Pulwama attack of 2019. "No such slogans were raised against the BJP or RSS in that rally. I was a part of it. The rally was organised between Bhoomanand Hospital and Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar," Vishal Chauhan told BOOM.
He also shared a similar video from February 16, 2019 uploaded on his Facebook profile.
While the video shared by Vishal is not the same that's viral now, it does show a similar surrounding. He can be seen raising Hindi slogans which translate to 'Bharat Mata ki Jai, Vandey Matram, those who are not with us, wear bangles and long live the martyrs'.
(Hindi: भारत माता की जय, वंदे मातरम, जो नहीं है साथ में चूड़ी पहन लो हाथ में, वीर शहीद अमर रहें)
When BOOM asked Chauhan if the video he had shared with us was from the same rally, the clip of which is viral now, he replied in affirmative. Chauhan said, "This is from the same rally. We were coming from a long distance. I could not find the exact same video though."
He also confirmed that the people seen in army camouflage around him are students. "The rally was taken out in the honour of army soldiers. However, people seen in the video are not soldiers, they are students in army uniform," Chauhan told BOOM.
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Chauhan confirmed to BOOM that no anti-BJP or anti-RSS slogans were raised during the rally.
Editor's note: The story has been updated to clarify pibfactcheck.in is not an official site. The error is regretted.