Does This Video Show JNU Students Chanting Expletives On Campus? A FactCheck

The recent attack on Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students on January 5, 2020 has led to a surge in misinformation targetting the varsity. A 2008 video clipping shot at Xaviers Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur has gone viral with a misleading claim of the video being from JNU, Delhi.

The video shows a group of girls chanting abuses inside a campus. The girls were walking across the campus while being booed by other students on campus.

BOOM has not included the video on account of the derogatory language it contains.

The video is viral on Facebook with the caption "Most vulgar language used by the girl students of JNU in the Campus protest. And, we pay Tax to subsidise their studies in JNU. This Institution called JNU deserves to be shut down earliest."

This video was also viral on the same medium in November 2019 with the claim "#JNU girls : This type of study is going on in #JNU. See what abusive language they are using against their V.C.Time to shut down this institution."

BOOM even received the video with the claim that this is JNU on our WhatsApp helpline.

Fact-Check

BOOM found that this video goes as far as 2008. We used a reverse image search and found that the original video is from 2008 at the XLRI Jamshedpur campus. A person in the video was heard saying "Ye IIMC hai" and identifying the girls as IIM Calcutta students at XLRI. Many websites that discuss colleges festivals such as Pagal Guy have spoken about the rivalry between IIMC and XLRI students. BOOM has not independently verified whether the girls were from IIMC.

We also found a longer video from 2009 which shows another set of girls, one of whom was wearing an XLRI hoodie, booing these girls.

The Quint had earlier debunked the same false claim. Quint spoke to students from XLRI who confirmed the event transpired at their campus during a sports festival. The source could however not confirm the year of the incident.