A video of K Muraleedharan, Indian National Congress MP from Kerala, is viral online with the false claim that at his recent rally, the crowd was seen carrying Pakistani flags.
BOOM found that the claims are false; the video is from April 2019 and shows flags of the Indian Muslim Union League, not Pakistan.
The viral video shows a crowd with people dressed in green and carrying green flags. BJP Telangana's State Treasurer Shanthikumar shared the video with the caption, "No! This isn't Pakistan, but Congress Candidate K. Muraleedharan campaigning in a certain part of his Thrissur constituency in #Kerala. Can you spot any one National Flag of India? Is this the 'Bharat Jodo' ideology of @RahulGandhi that flows in #Congress?"
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
The post is being circulated on Facebook with a similar caption.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the claims are false, the video is from April 2019 and shows flags of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and not Pakistan.
We noticed a Malayalam text at the bottom of the viral video, which roughly translated to 'Kondotti Pachapada', leading us to a Facebook group with the same name.
We then ran a search on this Facebook page using keywords 'K Muraleedharan' in Malayalam and found the viral video shared on April 19, 2019.
The video's caption, translated from Malayalam informed that the rally was held in K Muraleedharan's former constituency, Vadakara.
Click here for an archive.
We noticed that the flags in the viral video did not match the flag of Pakistan. While the flags in the viral video were completely green, Pakistan's flag has a white portion on the left side.
A part of the caption Kondotti Pachapada read, 'Sons of the League are being dismantled', leading us to believe that the flag might belong to the Indian Union Muslim League, a Kerala-based political party.
Below is a comparison between the flag from the rally and the flags of Pakistan and IUML.
