A viral video of a crowd waving saffron flags and raising anti-Pakistan slogans is being shared on social media with the claim that it is from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi.
However, we found that the video is from Thane in Maharashtra and could be traced back to 2018 when it was shot during a Ganpati Visarjan event.
CLAIM
[Warning: Explicit language]
The aforementioned video is massively viral on Facebook and Twitter with the same misleading claim. Among those who shared the video on Twitter is former Navy officer and author, Harinder Sikka.
“Must thank Leftists, Tukde-Tukde gangs, Congress supporters, JNU separatists for pushing us to the wall. Indians have taken a stand against traitors. JNU shows the way with a simple slogan,” Sikka wrote.
WHAT WE FOUND
The fact that no such event was reported from JNU by the media in recent days, raised our suspicion and we decided to further investigate this video.
We fragmented it into several keyframes and ran a reverse image search. This led us to the same video uploaded by a YouTube channel in October 2018, suggesting that it is from Thane in Maharashtra.
Another Facebook page uploaded the same video on October 2018 with a claim that it is from Thane.
To verify this, we reached out to a local reporter from Thane who told us that the video is indeed from Thane and was shot in 2018 during a Ganpati Visarjan event.
The Quint could trace the video back to 25 September 2018 when it was uploaded on Twitter by one Shailendra Rai (@rai_shailendraa).
An archived version of this tweet can be accessed here.
Further, fact-checking website Alt News, at 36 seconds into the video uploaded by Shalendra, came across banners of some shops in the area. One of them clearly read ‘SAMSUNG’.
A search on the Samsung Store Locator did not throw up any results that indicated that the company has a store inside the campus.
The Quint reached out to a student at JNU who informed us that there is no Samsung store inside the JNU campus.
Clearly, an old video from a Ganpati Visarjan event in Thane, where the crowd can be seen chanting abusive slogans against Pakistan is being falsely shared as that from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)