Lighthouse Journalism found a video being widely shared on social media platforms. Several women were seen arguing with a man driving a vehicle with the symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on it. It was claimed, along with the video, that it showed the women of Bihar fighting with a vehicle that came to distribute Sindoor.
During the investigation, we found that the video is old and unrelated to Operation Sindoor.
Claim:
X user Ram Shankar Ajad shared the video with the misleading claim.
Other users are also sharing the video with the same claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video.
Through this, we found a longer version of the video posted on Facebook on 25th October 2020.
The caption said: मुज़फ़्फ़रपुर के कुढ़नी से BJP विधायक केदार प्रसाद गुप्ता की प्रचार गाड़ी एक गाँव में पहुँची तो महिलाओं ने इतनी गंदी-गंदी गालियाँ दीं कि आप कल्पना भी नहीं कर सकते। महिलाओं ने गाड़ी पर पोस्टर फाड़ डाले और गाड़ी को उलटा भागने पर मजबूर कर दिया। #ViralVideo
Translation: When the campaign vehicle of BJP MLA Kedar Prasad Gupta from Kudhni in Muzaffarpur reached a village, the women abused him in such a filthy manner that you can’t even imagine. The women tore the posters on the vehicle and forced the vehicle to run in reverse. #ViralVideo
We then ran a keyword search in Hindi, which led us to news reports about the incident.
We also found a video report about the incident on Headlines Bihar, uploaded over four years ago.
Conclusion: 2020 video of Bihar Elections of BJP MLA’s campaign vehicle being sent back, now being shared as recent, linking it to Operation Sindoor. The viral claim is misleading.
