MP Congress shares debunked mock drill clip in video targeting Shivraj Singh Chouhan

The upcoming by-elections in Madhya Pradesh have led political parties to take the support of misinformation for one-upmanship. A few days ago, MP Congress and Digvijay Singh had shared an edited video of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

On October 14, the Twitter handle of MP Congress shared another video. “The situation in Madhya Pradesh has become dismal in the last 15 years rule of Chouhan’s rule. Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s government has become synonymous to lies, performance, corruption and the death of farmers. The lust for power hidden behind his many masks is now seen by the public. Shivraj ji, the more lies you spread, the more you will fall in the eyes of voters,” reads the tweet.

Between 19 to 39 seconds in the video, a clip shows policemen open firing at people. “When unarmed and poor farmers were killed by the police in public, were your sympathies asleep?” – is the background narration.

शिवराज के 15 साल,
मध्यप्रदेश हुआ बदहाल;

झूठ, घोषणा, अभिनय, भ्रष्टाचार और किसानों की मौत का पर्याय बन चुके शिवराज और उनके बदलते नक़ाबों की पीछे छिपी सत्ता हवस अब जनता देख चुकी है।

शिवराज जी,
अब आप जितना झूठ फैलाओगे,
मतदाताओं की नज़र से उतना ही गिरते जाओगे। pic.twitter.com/LxQPfZAXBm

— MP Congress (@INCMP) October 14, 2020

The video has been shared across social media handles of MP Congress.

Old mock drill video

The video clip used by Congress has been debunked by Alt News five times in the past when it was viral as armed forces shooting down Kashmiris, police firing at students opposing privatisation, MP police firing at farmers in Mandsaur, police firing in Kashmir after the revocation of Article 370 and cops firing during CAB protests in Assam.

This is an old clip of a mock drill conducted by Khunti, Jharkhand police. A reverse-search of one of its keyframes led us to the same video uploaded on November 1, 2017, on YouTube.

Alt News had spoken to the owner of a shop – “Jagdamba steel” – visible in the background who confirmed that a mock drill was conducted in the area on October 31, 2017.

Despite the video being debunked numerous times in the past, the mock drill clip found its way to Congress’s video targeting MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. However, it is noteworthy that during Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s governance in 2017, five farmers had died in police firing. In Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur in June 2017, farmers were agitating for fair price and loan waiver which sparked violence. In order to control the protests, the police fired at protesting farmers. JK Jain Commission report on the case was submitted to the state government one year later in June 2018 where the police were given a clean chit. “The commission said that there was no option for the police but to fire at protesters. Once the crowd dispersed, the firing stopped, it noted,” according to a report in The Indian Express.