The man in this video is not the newly appointed chief minister of India's Punjab state

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 22, 2021 at 07:49
2 min read
By Anuradha PRASAD, AFP India

A video has been viewed thousands of times in Facebook posts that claim it shows the baptism of Charanjit Singh Channi, the newly appointed chief minister of India's Punjab state. The claim is false; a bishop in the video can be heard saying the man’s name is Simranjit Singh, while there are no reports about Channi’s alleged baptism.

The video was shared here on Facebook on October 8, 2021.

It shows a man in a turban surrounded by a crowd stepping into a pool where a bishop appears to baptise him.

The Facebook post reads, "Punjab CM is taking Baptism".

Screenshot of the misleading post taken on October 19, 2021

The same video was shared in similar posts here and here on Facebook and here and here on Twitter.

However, the claim is false.

At the 29-second mark, the bishop can be heard taking the man’s name as Simranjit Singh and baptising him with a new name, Samuel.

"I baptise those who are believing, I baptise Simranjit Singh as Samuel, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost," he says.

Charanjit Singh Channi is a member of the Dalit Sikh community, according to a profile by The Print.

Channi has not immediately responded to AFP's request for comments on the misleading social media posts.

However, there is no credible report about Channi's allegedly baptism into Christianity.

Below is a comparison of the man seen in the video (left), who appears to be younger than 58-year-old Channi (right).

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