Old, Unrelated Video Falsely Linked To Recent Protests Against CEC Gyanesh Kumar

The video dates back to January 2024 and shows a movement calling for a ban on EVMs.

A video showing a massive crowd chanting "EVM hatao, desh bachao," [Remove Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), save the nation] gathered on the street has gone viral on the internet.

The claim: The video is being shared to claim that it shows recent visuals from Delhi's Jantar Mantar, where people were protesting to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

• Among those sharing the claim are Shiv Sena (UBT) leader are Sanjay Raut and Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan.

At the time of writing this report, Raut's post had gathered over 11 lakh views.

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No, the claim is false.

• The video dates back to January 2024 and shows visuals of a movement calling for a ban on EVMs.

How did we find out the truth?: A reverse image using Google Lens led us to a Facebook post carrying the same video, which was shared on 7 February 2024, making it over two years old.

• The post was shared with a caption which spoke about "a massive movement underway demanding a ban on EVMs."

• Taking a cue from these findings, we carried out a keyword search to know more about an anti-EVM protest in 2024.

• This led us another YouTube video, shared in 2024, with the title, "Ban evm rally Delhi jantar mantar 31 Jan 2024 Bharat Mukti Morcha (SIC)"

• A YouTube channel named 'OHeraldo Goa' had also shared a news report about the protest, using a screenshot of the video in the claim as a thumbnail.

• As per Amar Ujala's report, 22 organisations, including including the Bharat Mukti Morcha, Rashtriya Kisan Morcha, and Bahujan Mukti Party, protested against EVMs at Jantar Mantar on 31 January.

• The Quint had also debunked a claim surrounding the same video in December 2024, when users had incorrectly linked it to the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections.

Conclusion: An old video showing a protest calling for a ban on EVMs is being falsely linked to the ongoing protests at Jantar Mantar, where people are demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation.

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