Clip shows Indian opposition lawmaker protesting against inflation, not Muslim land boards overhaul

Published on April 17, 2025 at 11:34
3 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

A clip circulating online does not show an Indian opposition lawmaker staging a sit-in over reforms of hugely wealthy Muslim land-owning organisations, contrary to false claims spreading on social media. While the overhaul has drawn criticism, the video shows a different protest in August 2022.

"Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi is leading protests from the streets to parliament, condemning the Waqf Bill introduced to seize lands," reads in parts the Hindi-language X post on April 4, 2025.

It also shares a video showing the senior Indian National Congress figure at a sit-in surrounded by fellow party members and police officers. It has been watched over 194,000 times.

Screenshot of the false post, taken on April 15, 2025

The false claim surfaced after India's parliament passed a bill which Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government argues will boost transparency to the powerful Waqf boards (archived link ).

There are around two dozen of the Muslim land-owning organisations across India, owning some 900,000 acres (364,000 hectares), a multi-billion-dollar property empire that makes them one of the biggest landholders alongside the railways and the defence forces.

Opposition parties have criticised the government for pushing "polarising politics" at the expense of India's Muslim minority of 200 million.

Three people were killed in deadly protests that erupted in West Bengal over the passage of the bill (archived link).

The false video also circulated on Facebook and X, but it is not related to the Waqf reforms.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the clip found Indian news agency ANI published a video showing the same scene on X on August 5, 2022 (archived link ).

The video is captioned "Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sits on a protest with other leaders and workers of the party outside the AICC HQ".

Screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and ANI's clip, with similarities highlighted by AFP

The Free Press Journal newspaper posted pictures showing the protests on X on the same day (archived link).

Indian outlet Ten News National also published videos on YouTube and Facebook filmed at the sit-in (archived here and here).

ANI reported at the time Delhi police detained Gandhi while she was protesting over issues of inflation, cost of living, and unemployment (archived link).

As of April 17, AFP cannot find official reports on Gandhi or Congress party members organising demonstrations against the Waqf reforms.

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