Fact Check: Video of men waving saffron flags in Karnataka falsely linked to Karauli violence
A video showing a group of men waving saffron flags near a building that appears to be a mosque is being shared in the context of the Karauli violence.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 11 April 2022 9:00 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A video showing a group of men waving saffron flags near a building that appears to be a mosque is being shared in the context of the Karauli violence.
The video is being shared on social media with the caption, "Where are the so-called champions of Human Rights when houses of Muslims are being burned in India."
Fact Check
The claim is false.
NewsMeter conducted a Google reverse image search using the keyframes of the viral video and found a report by Vartha Bharati, dated 29 March 2022, titled "Karnataka: Rally organised by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya creates nuisance in front of Mosque, Dargah."
According to the report, "BJP MP Tejasvi Surya who had organised a cycle rally from Bengaluru to Kolar on March 27 is once again in the headlines after a video has surfaced on social media wherein the participants of the rally can be seen creating nuisance in front of a mosque and a dargah on their way to Kolar."
It also carried a still from the viral video. The image was credited to a Twitter user '@Shaad_Bajpe'.
Taking that as a clue, we scrolled through the Twitter feed of @Shaad_Bajpe, a journalist, and found that he had tweeted the viral video on 29 March with the caption, "Tejasvi Surya had organised a cycle rally from Bangalore to Kolar on March 21. When the rally reached the Hussaini Makan Masjid of Kolar the people who participated in the rally stopped and started doing this nuisance."
He later corrected the date of the rally to 27 March.
We also found the same video was uploaded on a Facebook page 'Hyderabad News Sab se Tezz' on 29 March 2022.
We further analysed the video closely and spotted 'MASJID E HUSSAINI MAKAN' written on the building. We compared the image of Masjid E Hussain Makan with the building in the viral video and found them to be the same.
We further looked up keywords 'Tejasvi Surya cycle rally Bangalore to Kolar' on Google and found a report by The Times of India, dated 27 March 2022, which stated that, "Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya on Sunday cycled from Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru to Kolar for 75 kilometres 'Cycle 2 Freedom Ride', to commemorate the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'."
Hence, the claim is false.
