Fact Check: Did Gautam Gambhir really make an obscene gesture to Pak fan during Asia Cup 2023?

Hyderabad: A video of Former India cricketer and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Gautam Gambhir grabbed headlines as he showed a middle finger to fans sitting in the stadium during Asia Cup 2023 in Sri Lanka dated 2^nd September.

In the viral video, you can hear anti-Indian slogan ‘ Bharat tere tukde honge, Inshallah!Inshallah!

On contrary to this, another video with Virat Kohli chants is also doing round on social media.

For those who don’t know, the two had a heated exchange of obscenities in 2013 following an RCB-KKR game. Gambhir was then KKR captain. The trigger of the spat between Kohli and Gambhir seemed to be LSG opener Kyle Mayers' exchange with Kohli, which was seemingly interrupted by Gambhir pulling Mayers away.

In both situations, it’s quite understood why Gambhir irked and marked the gesture. But let’s find out which version of the video depicts the true incident.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false as no Anti-National slogans were chanted.

Through our investigation, we first encountered a tweet by the former cricketer Gautam Gambhir defending himself. In his official statement, he wrote, ‘“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”. Not everything is as it seems. Any Indian would react how I did to the kind of slogans used against our nation. I love our players & I love my country.’

A similar elaborated statement by Gautam Gambhir was also seen on the official X handle of ANI as well.

Taking a dig at the controversy, refuting the Anti- India slogan statement by Gambhir, a cricket writer & Administrator at DailyCricketSL, Nibraz Ramzan tweeted on his verified X handle, ‘My cousins who were there at the pallekelle stadium during the last rain effected India vs Pakistan match was sitting at the same place where a sri lankan fan supporting India filmed the Gautam Ghambir’s viral video says the were no anti-Indian slogans sang. All what happened there was Indian fans Chanting Kohli kohli kohli when Gautam Ghambir passed by. #AsiaCup2023’.

He further added to his tweet, ‘Both Indian and Pakistani fans were very friendly at the stands and had an equal amount of fans for both teams, had anyone sang anti-Indian slogans, it might have lead to a big war at the stands itself. But nothing happened there, everyone left the stands singing and dancing together after the game was called off.

We also found that the audio in the viral video with the “Bharat tere tukde honge Insallah!Inshallah!” chants were taken from Jawaharlal Nehru University, where students raised anti-national slogans during a protest dated February 15th, 2016.

The audio could be heard at a timestamp of 0:38 seconds in the AajTak video report.

The same could also be seen in a media report by Republic World.