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| - Fact Check: This tractor march was NOT in support of the wrestlers' protest in Jantar Mantar
India Today found that the video was from a 2021 tractor march held in Kerala in support of the farmers' protest.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is from a 2021 march held by the Kerala Youth Congress in Pallakad in support of the farmers’ protest.
A day after the Delhi Police clashed with protesting wrestlers at Jantar Mantar, people from various walks of life, including farmers, went to the protest site on May 4 to show support for the wrestlers.
Indian professional wrestlers have been sitting in protest since April 23, demanding the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan over sexual harassment charges.
Members of Khap Panchayats, who were attempting to join the wrestlers' protest, were stopped by the police at the Singhu border. Bharatiya Kishan Union leader Abhimanyu Kohar and his supporters were reportedly detained by the police.
Amid these developments, a video of a large tractor rally has been widely shared on social media. Allegedly, this was the farmers’ rally on its way to Jantar Mantar in support of the protesting wrestlers. In the video, tricolour flags can be seen attached to the tractors.
The video was shared by the Facebook page of the Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress. Deepak Khatri, a National Coordinator for social media for the Congress party also shared the video. While he later deleted it, his tweet was shared by several people including Prateek Singh, the Rajasthan state spokesperson for the grand old party. The archived versions of such posts can be seen here and here.
India Today, in its investigation, found that the video shows a tractor rally held by the Kerala Youth Congress in support of the farmers’ protest in 2021.
Our Probe
The logo of the Malayalam news channel Manorama News can be seen at the bottom left corner of the video, and the word "Rally" is written in Malayalam on a white poster fixed in front of several tractors, indicating that the video is from Kerala.
A keyword search in Malayalam on Facebook led us to an extended version of the same video shared on the Facebook page of Manorama News on January 3, 2021.
Per this post, the video was from a Kisan March held by Youth Congress workers in support of the farmers’ protest that was happening in Delhi against the three farm laws at the time. In this version of the video, Kerala Congress MLAs Shafi Parambil and KS Sabarinadhan could be seen.
A video from the rally was also shared by Sabarinadhan on January 2, 2021. “Youth Congress Kisan March,” the MLA wrote while sharing the video.
Parambil also shared a photo from the rally on January 3, 2021, thanking the public for its solidarity towards the farmers’ protest.
Multiple media reports from Kerala that were published on March 3, 2021, also contained images from the rally that resembled the video.
Per these reports, the Jai Kisan March was organised by the Youth Congress State Committee in the Palakkad district of Kerala on January 2, 2021. Srinivas BV, the National President of the Indian Youth Congress inaugurated the concluding session of the March. Videos from the march and the concluding session were also shared on the Facebook account of Srinivas BV. In them, Congress leaders could be heard speaking in support of the farmers’ protest.
It is hence clear the viral video is from a 2021 rally held in support of the farmers’ protest. It has nothing to do with the ongoing protest by Indian wrestlers in Jantar Mantar.
(With inputs from Ashish Kumar)
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