A fake video posted by a prominent Facebook page managed by a prominent right-wing Hindutva group has gone viral. The Facebook page ‘I Support Ahit Doval’ posted a video claiming on 25 July that was from Punjab, where a group of Sikhs had chased away few Muslims, who were staging sit-ins and chanting pro-Pakistan slogans.
The caption read, “Few Muslims were staging dharna in Punjab and chanting pro-Pakistan slogans. This angered two Sikhs, who took out their swords. This prompted all the peaceful people to run away from the scene. Don’t forget to share the video if you liked it.”
The video has since then been viewed by 3.2 million people.
The video is indeed from Punjab and the ‘I Love Ajit Doval’ page woners have deliberately lied to cause communal tension in what’s a been a peaceful Punjab.
The incident took place in June. Two Sikhs wielding swords were NOT ruining after Muslims as implied in the video post by ‘peaceful people.’ They were chasing away Shiv Sena workers, who had taken to streets protesting against Khalistani supporters. One of their placards said ‘Khalistan Murdabad’ as they chanted Aatankwad murdabad (Down with terrorism).
It’s, therefore, utterly mischievous for the right-wing Hindutva group to circulate the video claiming that Muslims were chanting pro-Pakistan slogans.
The news was also reported by Punjab local news outlet, 5AAB Today Channel. You can watch the full video below.
Interestingly, ‘I Love Ajit Doval’ has more than one million likes on its Facebook page and most of its content are either communally divisive in nature or related to pornography.
For example, some of its recent posts are as follows;
It’s not clear whether users have reported the fake content by ‘I Love Ajit Doval’ page to the Facebook, which had said that it will take strict action against the dissemination of fake materials.
Facebook has been deluged with pro-Hindutva pages drumming support for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2013. They’ve often been accused of deliberately pushing fake content to polarise communities in order to extract the desired electoral mileage. This, according to the analysts, is largely because the government has failed to deliver its election promises in the last three-and-a-half-year of governance.