A 0:26-second long clip is viral on social media with the claim that the convoy of Shrikant Sharma, “spokesperson and member of CM Yogi’s cabinet” was chased away by the public. The video does not provide detail of when and where the alleged incident took place.
The video is viral on Twitter with the hashtag #खदेड़ा_होई (English: Chased away).
#खदेड़ा_होई
योगी सरकार के प्रवक्ता और कैबिनेट मंत्री श्रीकांत शर्मा को जनता ने खदेड़ा….😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/t3SWtmqp02— Dinesh Chauhan (@dinesh_chauhan) February 4, 2022
भाजपा सरकार में अच्छे दिन के खिलाफ जनता में भारी आक्रोश🤔#खदेड़ा_होई
योगी सरकार के प्रवक्ता और कैबिनेट मंत्री #श्रीकांत_शर्मा जी को जनता ने खदेड़ा.. बाल-बाल बचे। pic.twitter.com/P0wTX0aW51— Nagesh Pandey (@Nagesh1oo) February 4, 2022
#खदेड़ा_होई
योगी सरकार के प्रवक्ता और कैबिनेट मंत्री श्रीकांत शर्मा को जनता ने खदेड़ा.. pic.twitter.com/zvhW6zftdW— Guddi Yadav Namit Parshed (@GParshed) February 4, 2022
The video has also been shared on Facebook.
#यूपी_में_का_बा …..😁
योगी सरकार के प्रवक्ता और कैबिनेट मंत्री श्रीकांत शर्मा को लोगों ने जमकर खदेड़ा।Posted by Ajay Bharti on Friday, 4 February 2022
Fact-check
We broke the video into multiple keyframes and performed a reverse image search on one of the keyframes. This led us to a video of a higher resolution posted on YouTube with a title in Hindi. The title reads, “How Ravindra Rai’s Scorpio was chased away by the mob” (केसे रविन्द्र राय की स्कॉर्पियो भीड़ ने भगाया). The video also has a description with several hashtags that suggest it was recorded in Dhanbad, Jharkhand.
Taking that as a clue, we performed a keyword search and came across several news reports. According to a report by The Telegraph published on January 30, language rights activists were protesting in Dhanbad and Bokaro with residents forming a human chain venting their ire on the inclusion of Bhojpuri and Magahi in the regional language list for Dhanbad and Bokaro.
The protest turned violent and the vehicle of BJP leader and former MP Ravindra Rai was attacked near the Telmachcho bridge of Bokaro at around 12.30 pm. He was heading towards Dhanbad from Bokaro in his car to attend the farmers’ cell meeting of BJP scheduled in Dhanbad.
We also came across a video report by Navbharat Times where Ravindra Rai can be seen speaking to the media. According to Rai, he was unaware of the human chain agitation and was heading for the meeting. Protestors stopped his car and asked him to support their agitation. As he was speaking to them the mob slowly turned violent and started attacking his car.
झारखंड में भोजपुरी और मगही विरोध, बोकारो में पूर्व सांसद रविंद्र राय ने छिपकर बचाई जान
बोकारो : झारखंड में भाषा की लड़ाई हिंसक होती जा रही है। बीजेपी के पूर्व सांसद रविंद्र राय की गाड़ी पर बोकारो में हमला किया गया। भोजपुरी और मगही भाषा का विरोध कर रहे लोगों ने घटना को अंजाम दिया।
Posted by Navbharat Times Online on Sunday, 30 January 2022
A video of the confrontation with the protestors before it turned violent can be found on Live Hindustan’s YouTube channel.
The claim that Shrikant Sharma, BJP leader and a member of UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet, was attacked is also false. We went through several news reports but could not find anything corroborating the news. We also reached out to a local journalist who told us that no such attack took place.
Hence, a video from Jharkhand where protestors of linguistic rights attacked the car of BJP leader and former MP Ravindra Rai was shared with a false claim.
Independent journalism that speaks truth to power and is free of corporate and political control is possible only when people start contributing towards the same. Please consider donating towards this endeavour to fight fake news and misinformation.
