Old Hindu procession clip falsely linked to India prophet row
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 21, 2022 at 12:06
- Updated on June 30, 2022 at 06:15
- 3 min read
- By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
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"Hindus of Jammu came out in support of Nupur Sharma. Now the world will see the unity and strength of Hindus," reads a Hindi-language Facebook post from June 13.
The video, which has more than 100,000 views, shows crowds dressed in saffron, the colour of Hinduism, marching down a street.
India's ruling Hindu-majority Bharatiya Janata Party suspended firebrand official Nupur Sharma after televised comments she made on May 26 about the relationship between the prophet and his youngest wife sparked protests in India and across the Muslim world.
However, there have been no credible reports about a rally in Jammu in support of Sharma following her remarks.
The video was shared in similar posts on Twitter here and here; and on Facebook here and here.
However, the claim is false.
Hindu procession
A Google reverse image search of keyframes from the video found the footage posted on April 18 -- weeks before Sharma's remarks about the prophet -- on the Facebook and YouTube pages of right-wing Indian organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Both posts are captioned in Hindi: "Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Hanuman birth anniversary rally in Noida Mahanagar 2022."
Noida is a city in India's Uttar Pradesh state and located more than 600 kilometres (370 miles) south of Jammu.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in one of the false posts (left) and the video shared by Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Facebook (right):
A spokesperson for Vishwa Hindu Parishad told AFP: "This rally was taken out by Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Noida on April 2022 on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti."
Hanuman Jayanti is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of the Hindu god Hanuman. It was held in Noida in April, Indian news channel News18 reported.
Furthermore, the buildings in the video correspond to Google Street View imagery taken along Dadri Main Road in Noida.
An AFP journalist who visited the same location in Noida said it corresponds to the video shared with the false claim.
Below shows a screenshot comparison of the video falsely claimed to be Jammu (left) and a photo taken in Noida by an AFP journalist (right):
AFP has previously debunked a string of false claims around the Sharma row, including here and here.
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