India’s main opposition party, the Congress, is often the target of disinformation that fans accuse of being more favorable to the country’s Muslim minority. In the latter case, a video circulated online ahead of local elections showing supporters of a Muslim Congress politician carrying flags of various Islamic countries and organizations. The footage actually shows a procession for an Islamic holiday unrelated to the elections.
“Look at their flags. Flags of Palestine, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, Hezbollah… No Indian flag,” read an X post sharing the video on November 15, 2024.
“I think this election rally is from which country? This is in the secular state of Akola, Western Maharashtra. Congress party candidate Sajid Khan Mastan Khan election rally.”
The images show a cavalcade with people waving the Indian tricolor and flags of various Muslim countries and groups.
The post received more than 125,000 views as Sajid Khan, a Muslim politician from the Congress party, campaigned for the Akola West seat in the Maharashtra elections – which he later won.
Screenshot of the fake post, taken on November 17, 2024
The Congress teamed up with regional parties in a bid to unseat Maharashtra’s ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Supporters of the Hindu nationalist BJP have often accused Congress of being more favorable to India’s Muslim minority of 200 million.
Although India is constitutionally secular, calls to better align the country’s political system with the Hindu majority faith have rapidly grown louder since Modi came to power in 2014.
The video was shared elsewhere on X and Facebook with similar claims.
However, the footage shows a religious-Islamic procession in Latur district of Maharashtra, about 330 kilometers (200 miles) from Akola (archived link).
Religious procession
A reverse image search on Google found a longer version of the video posted to YouTube on October 1, 2024 (archived link).
The headline of the video suggests that it shows a procession celebrating the Muslim festival Eid Milad-un-Nabi in Latur district of Maharashtra.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in Fake Posts (left) and the YouTube video (right):
Screenshot comparison of the clip shared in fake posts (left) and the YouTube video (right)
Another keyword search on YouTube found similar videos of a procession on local news channels Latur News Officer And Bharat Satta Live from September 2024 (archived link here and here).
Hamid Sheikh, editor of BharatSatta, confirmed that the fake news clip showed an Eid Milad-un-Nabi procession in Latur, Maharashtra.
“The procession was led by civilians to Milad-un-Nabi on September 19, 2024,” he told AFP on November 20.
“The procession started from Sophia Mosque in the city and proceeded via Main Road via Shivaji Chowk and Gandhi Chowk. This video was shot near Gandhi Chowk.”
AFP confirmed the location of the video by comparing it with Google Maps images from the area (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the fake post video (left) and Google Street View (right), with the similarities highlighted by AFP:
Screenshot comparison of the fake post video (left) and Google Street View images of the area (right) with similarities highlighted by AFP
