Protests against the centre’s farm bills sparked violence in the national capital on January 26 after some groups of protestors deviated from the pre-decided course during the tractor rally. This subsequently led to several false claims attempting to portray that the demonstrators replaced the Indian national flag atop the Red Fort with Khalistan and Sikh religious flags.
In the latest spree, a video of a group of Sikh men with Khalistan flags walking on the Indian national flag has been linked to the Republic Day tractor parade.
Bsdk @diljitdosanjh , This is what you are supporting! https://t.co/C0geCuSX4o
— Chota Don (@choga_don) January 27, 2021
Actor Kangana Ranaut was among those who amplified the video.
The problem is we still think we need to enlighten them about what they supporting as if it will transform him. Of course they know what they doing. Danke ki chot pe they hoisted Khalistan flag on Red Fort, truth is it’s jungle Raj jiski lathi uski bhains and they had the lathi. https://t.co/TpE3AJlJTE
— Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) January 27, 2021
“There is a time and place to show patience. HM’s (Home Minister) calmness is not what was needed yesterday,” wrote Twitter user @Ankita_Arya suggesting that the video was shot in India.
There is a time and place to show patience. HM’s calmness is not what was needed yesterday entire nation want action some times actions speak not patience. Yesterday we all r expecting action from him …..check this video and tell me patience does matter here … pic.twitter.com/nbSQepKHbK
— Ankita :): 🕉️🇮🇳 (@Ankita_Arya) January 27, 2021
From the Facebook account of one Rinkel Poswal, the video received 57,000 shares.
Posted by Rinkel Poswal on Tuesday, 26 January 2021
It has also been shared with a Marathi caption indicating that the video is from India.
Video from the US
A cursory look at the video itself raises doubts because the trucks visible in the background do not look like Indian trucks and the location also does not resemble places in India.
The username ‘amanvir_singh5’ is faintly visible on the top left corner of the video. He is a TikTok user based in the United States. We accessed his TikTok profile on Tor web browser. He had uploaded the clip on January 25 (EST).
Singh has uploaded another video from the event where Indian national flags were burnt and desecrated. In the second clip, two dogs are pulling and tearing the flag.
Searching for his name on Twitter led us to a tweet that gives the address of the place where the incident took place.
In fact, Singh had made an announcement on TikTok where he requests people to gather for the protest at the same location.
We looked for ‘7609 Wilbur Way, Sacramento, CA, USA 95828’ on Google Maps and found that the video was indeed shot here.
White and blue coloured water tanks can be spotted in front of the white building.
Visual similarities between the buildings seen in the first video uploaded by Singh (viral video) and the location on Google Maps can be spotted at several other places.
We can also spot a tree, a fence and the same white building in that order on Google Maps.
A video of Khalistan supporters desecrating the Indian national flag in California, US was falsely claimed to be from India.
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