Was Pakistan flag used in Congress party's Bharat Jodo Yatra?

Hyderabad: A video of a group of men walking with banners and green flags with a crescent moon and a star is being widely circulated on social media with the claim that Pakistani flags were used during the Congress party's Bharat Jodo Yatra.

The banner has Rahul Gandhi's name and photo, and the video has the background music of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

A user, who shared the video claiming that the green flag used in Bharat Jodo Yatra is the Pakistan flag, wrote, "How much evidence do we need to give to secular Hindus that the Congress Party is dangerous to our nation." (Archive)

Click here to see the post.

Suresh Chavhanke, the editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News TV, shared the video with a communal twist. (Archive)

Click here to see the post.

Fact Check

NewsMeter noticed that along with the name and photo of Rahul Gandhi, the banner also has the Tricolour and IUML written on it. We ran a keyword search and found that IUML stands for Indian Union Muslim League, a Kerala-based political party and an alliance partner of the Congress-led UDF front.

Taking this as a cue, we searched for the video and found it on Facebook. It was posted on Muslim Youth League Guruvayur's page on 26 September. The caption, in Malayalam, welcomed Rahul Gandhi and the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

To verify whether Pakistan flags were used during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, we compared the flags in the viral video with the Pakistani national flag. The Pakistan national flag has a vertical white strip, and the crescent moon and star are at the centre of the flag. The flags in the viral video have no white strip and the crescent moon and star are at the corner of the flag. The flags seen in the viral video belong to IUML.

It is evident that the flag in the viral video belongs to IUML, not Pakistan. Hence, the claim is false.