A video from a political rally where participants are chanting ‘Khalistan Zindabad’ is circulating widely on social media. It has been claimed that pro-Khalistan slogans were raised following the Aam Aadmi Party’s victory in Punjab.

One Twitter user shared the clip, adding that change has started in Punjab as soon as AAP was voted to power.

Twitter user Vinod Sharma also promoted the video as pro-Khalistan sloganeering following AAP’s victory. (Archive link)

The visuals are widespread on Twitter and Facebook with the same claim.

Fact-check

Upon taking a closer look, we noticed that some of the placards carried by the people in the video read ‘Justice for Deep Sidhu’. Deep Sidhu was a Punjabi actor-activist, who was frequently in the headlines for his participation in the farmer protests. He was arrested after the violence that occurred at the Kisan Tractor Rally. Sidhu died in a road accident earlier in February. Fans of the actor took out rallies in several areas of Punjab in his honour.

When we performed a keyword search using this information, Alt News came across a YouTube video posted on February 22. The video description mentions that the scenes are from Bathinda, Punjab.

Website NEWJ also shared this video on Facebook on February 25 and wrote that slogans of ‘Khalistan Zindabad’ were raised in the rallies taken out to commemorate Deep Sidhu.

In a video report found on VK News’ YouTube channel, scenes from the viral video appear at the 0:12 mark. The anchor mentions that pro-Khalistan slogans were raised during a rally in Punjab’s Bathinda. News18 Hindi also reported that there was pro-Khalistan sloganeering during Deep Sidhu’s last rites ceremony.

To sum it up, footage of a rally organised in February 2022 to commemorate late actor Deep Sidhu was falsely shared in connection to the Aam Aadmi Party’s recent victory in the Punjab assembly elections. It was falsely claimed that pro-Khalistan slogans were raised in the state after AAP’s win. Alt News could not find any media reports to corroborate the claim. This is not the first time such a clip was circulated against the backdrop of election results being announced.

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About the Author

Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.