Hindu procession clip filmed in India's Uttar Pradesh state, not Maharashtra ahead of vote

Published on November 19, 2024 at 02:56
3 min read
By Akshita KUMARI, AFP India

As India's western Maharashtra state geared up for its November 20 legislative elections, footage of people chanting a Hindu slogan was repeatedly shared in posts with a false claim it shows a campaign event in the state. The posts surfaced as the state's opposition bloc mounted a challenge to the ruling coalition led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The video, however, was filmed in northern Uttar Pradesh state and previously appeared online in February 2022.

"Mood of Maharashtra. Maharashtra election campaign started in a very beautiful manner," read a Facebook post written in a mix of English and Hindi shared on November 7, 2024.

It included a video that shows people in a high-rise building standing on their balconies chanting "Jai Shri Ram" -- a popular religious chant among India's Hindu-majority population (archived link).

Screenshot of the false post taken on November 7, 2024

The two-minute and 29-second video was shared with the false claim elsewhere on Facebook here and on social media site X.

The posts surfaced ahead of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election set on November 20, where the opposition bloc that includes the Indian National Congress party -- accused by critics of being overly favourable to the Muslim minority -- hopes to unseat the state's ruling coalition led by BJP (archived link).

However, the video in the false posts was not filmed in the state.

Misrepresented footage

A reverse image search of keyframes on Google found the video was published on Facebook on February 15, 2022. Its caption said the video was filmed in Kanpur city in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state (archived link).

A video showing the same scene was also shared on Facebook on February 12, 2022 (archived link).

The post said the clip shows the right-wing Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) conducting a "prabhat pheri" -- a ritual of processions in the morning while reciting religious text -- in several apartment complexes in Kanpur.

The caption also said it was filmed in an apartment complex called Diviniti Homes.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video as seen in the false posts (left) and in the 2022 post (right):

Screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and one of the Facebook posts from 2022 (right)

AFP was able to confirm the location of the video by comparing it with Google Street View imagery of the Diviniti Homes apartment complex (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video (left) and its corresponding location on Google Maps (right) with similar elements highlighted:

Screenshot comparison of the video (left) and its corresponding location on Google Maps (right)

The claim was previously debunked by the Indian fact-checking website Newschecker.

AFP has debunked misinformation around the Maharashtra vote.

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Hindu procession clip filmed in India's Uttar Pradesh state, not Maharashtra ahead of vote

Misrepresented footage

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