An old, unrelated video of a crowd at a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally has recently been shared with the false claim that it shows a public rally in support of the wrestlers who are protesting against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
New Delhi's Jantar Mantar is currently witnessing a sit-in protest by several Olympic and national-level wrestlers such as Bajrang Punia, Sakshee Malikkh, and Vinesh Phogat. The wrestlers have alleged that Singh, a BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh's Kaiserganj, has sexually harassed multiple women athletes. The athletes have received nationwide support, including monetary contributions to their movement, reported The Times of India.
However, BOOM found that the viral video does not show a rally in support of the wrestlers' protest. The clip is old, and shows a BJP rally in Surat, Gujarat that took place in 2022.
Wrestler Sakshee Malikkh tweeted the video with the caption, "Support from all over India #wrestlersprotest #istandwithmychampions".
Click here to view the post.
Other social media users also uploaded the same video with a similar misleading claim.
Click here to view the post.
Fact Check
BOOM went through the replies to Malikkh's tweet, and found a comment that mentioned another tweet containing the exact same video, posted on September 30, 2022. The caption of this tweet claimed it to be from a OBC rally that happened in Jaipur, Rajasthan in 2022.
Click here to view the tweet.
Furthermore, when we started looking through the replies to the tweet that claimed it is from Rajasthan, several users responded by stating that the video is not from Rajasthan, but Gujarat.
We also found a tweet in the replies saying that the video is from a BJP rally that happened in Gujarat's Surat.
Click here to view the tweet.
We refined our keyword search with relevant keywords on YouTube to look for video coverage of BJP rallies in Surat, and found that a user uploaded similar visuals, claiming it to be from Surat's Nilgiri circle area on September 30, 2022.
Another keyword search about the location and the event led us to a video uploaded by a vlogger named Reeteshraj, on September 28, 2022, on his YouTube channel. The title of the video read, "Coming soon surat prime minister shree narendra modi nilgiri circle full decorate".
The video showed us the preparation in Surat's Nilgiri circle ahead of the Modi's roadshow that was set to happen on September 29, 2022.
We compared the visuals present in the viral video with the vlog, and found some striking similarities.
Using Google Street View, we viewed the area around Nilgiri Circle in Surat, and were able to find the exact same monument which can be seen in the viral video.
News agency ANI on September 29, 2022, reported that Modi had appeared in a roadshow in Surat during a two-day visit to his home state Gujarat. The report also states that a huge crowd had gathered to see his cavalcade, as he inaugurated various projects.
The roadshow was streamed live on Doordarshan National's official YouTube channel on September 29, 2022.
