Old footage of attack on ruling Indian party members falsely linked to clashes in Manipur state

This article is more than one year old.
Published on July 13, 2023 at 10:15
4 min read
By Anuradha PRASAD, AFP India

A video has been shared more than a thousand times in social media posts that falsely claim it shows members of India's ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) being chased and hit in the northeastern state of Manipur. While there has been an explosion of inter-ethnic violence in Manipur since May 2023, the video in fact circulated in reports about a BJP leader being manhandled in the state of West Bengal in October 2017.

"This is how the BJP are treated in Manipur, they will receive the same treatment across the country," reads the Hindi-language caption of a video shared on Twitter here on July 1, 2023.

The tweet has since been shared more than 1,300 times.

The video shows three men wearing orange sashes being escorted down a street while they are being punched, kicked and heckled by another group.

One of the group shouts at the men: "What do you think about Gorkhas? You remember what you said? That Gorkhaland won't be given!"

India's ethnic Gorkhas have campaigned for decades for a new state of "Gorkhaland" within the eastern state of West Bengal, claiming Bengali-speaking outsiders have exploited their resources and imposed their culture and language.

A screenshot of the false tweet, captured on July 2, 2023

The same video was shared with similar claims elsewhere on Twitter here and here, and on Facebook here and here.

It was shared as inter-ethnic violence continued in Manipur, in the country's remote northeast.

The violence between the majority Meitei, who are mostly Hindus and live in and around the state capital Imphal, and the mainly Christian Kuki tribe in the surrounding hills erupted in May.

The initial spark was Kuki anger at the prospect of the Meitei being given guaranteed quotas of government jobs and other perks in a form of affirmative action. This also stoked long-held fears among the Kuki that the Meitei might be allowed to acquire land in areas currently reserved for them and other tribal groups.

But the video being shared on social media was not filmed in Manipur or during the ongoing ethnic violence. It has circulated since October 2017 in reports about a BJP leader being attacked while he was on his way to attend an event in Darjeeling -- a district in West Bengal.

Old video from Darjeeling

A keyword search on Google led to the same footage that was uploaded to the YouTube channel of local news outlet NMF News on October 6, 2017 (archived link).

Its English-language description reads: "Bharatiya Janta Party's Bengal president Dilip Ghosh was allegedly manhandled in Darjeeling by the activists of anti Bimal Gurung faction of Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha. Gurung is the president of Morcha."

It says Ghosh, who was the BJP's state president for West Bengal at the time, was in Darjeeling to meet the leaders of Gurung's faction (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false tweet (left) and the video uploaded by NMF News (right):

Screenshot comparison of the video in the false tweet (left) and the video uploaded by NMF News (right)

At the two-minute, 19-second mark of the NMF video, the individuals can be seen walking to Sadar Police Station, which is in Darjeeling (archived link).

According to an Outlook magazine report from October 6, 2017, Ghosh had been chased and heckled by rebel Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GFM) supporters. The GJM has been at the forefront of the movement calling for a "Gorkhaland".

"The scuffle erupted between BJP supporters and the agitators when Ghosh, heading a party delegation, arrived at the venue in the evening where a 'Vijaya Sammelani' of party workers was scheduled to be held", the Outlook report says (archive link).

Footage from the incident, taken from a different angle, was also used in a report by the news channel Republic TV (archived link).

The Republic TV footage briefly captures the name of a shop on the street at its 36-second mark, and a subsequent search for the shop on the website of Indian phone directory JustDial shows it is in Darjeeling (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the shop as captured in the Republic TV news video (left) and a photo of the same shop available on JustDial website (right), with the matching features highlighted by AFP:

A screenshot comparison between the shop as captured in the Republic TV news video (left) and a photo of the same shop available on JustDial website (right)

AFP has also debunked another false claim related to the recent violence in Manipur here.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail