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  • 2019-05-20 (xsd:date)
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  • No, this video does not show India’s ruling party preventing Muslims from voting (en)
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  • A video has been viewed thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook and Twitter which claim it shows officials from India’s ruling party preventing Muslims from voting in India’s elections in the western state of Rajasthan in May 2019. The claim is false; the video has circulated online since before the start of India's election on April 11, 2019; the footage has previously appeared online in reports over a communal dispute in Gujarat state. The video was shared in this Facebook post on May 6, 2019 and has been viewed more than 1,500 times. The post’s Hindi language caption translates to English as: Breaking News: Modi government is stopping Muslims from casting their votes. Workers from BJP, RSS and Shiv Sena are attacking elderly, women and children. Share this video in maximum number as the media will not show this. Action should be taken against Modi and RSS. It is from Nawa town in Nagaur district of Rajasthan. Below is a screenshot of the post: Snapshot of the misleading Facebook post Modi refers to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP refers to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party . Casting their votes refers to the Indian elections in 2019, in which about 900 million Indians were eligible to vote between April 11 and May 19. Here is an AFP report about the elections. RSS refers to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh , a parent organisation of the BJP. Shiv Sena refers to a regional political party in Maharashtra. Here is the party’s official Twitter page. The video was shared with a similar claim on Facebook here , here , here , here and here , and on Twitter here , here and here . The claim is false; the video has circulated online since at least early April 2019 in connection with reports about an incident that happened before the elections began. A reverse image search on Yandex using screenshots of the video found the exact same video was published in this tweet on April 3, 2019. The caption states: In Viramgam District of Ahmedabad, we can clearly see Police beating the minorities, while chowkidars are sleeping. Chowkidars means watchman in Hindi and is a key phrase used by Modi and the BJP on the campaign trail. Here is a video of Modi using the phrase. Through keyword searches on Google, AFP located this report published in Gujurati by local media site akilanews.com on April 1, 2019, which used screenshots from the video. Below is screenshot of the report: Screenshots of the video published on local news website The headline of the report in Gujarati translates to English as: Thakor-Muslim clash over wall of a burial ground. Thakor is a dominant Hindu community in Gujarat. Below is screenshot comparing the images published in the Gujarati news website (L) and screenshots of the video in the misleading posts (R): Image comparing screenshots from the local news website (L) and screenshots of the video in the misleading posts (R) This report published on Indian newspaper The Times of India on April 1, 2019 also described the clashes in Viramgam. R V Asari, Ahmedabad’s Superintendent of police told AFP by phone that the photo shows an incident in Viramgam on March 31. The video is falsely being circulated that members of the Muslim community were stopped from casting their votes, he said. There was actually tension and clash between two communities - Thakur and Muslims - over hanging clothes on a boundrywall of the Muslims' burial ground. Police have registered a case in this matter and 30 people have been arrested so far. (en)
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