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A video viewed tens of thousands of times after being posted to multiple social media accounts in February 2019 claims to show Indian politicians from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party smiling and joking at the funeral of martyrs or soldiers. The claim is false; it is a video from October 2018 when some politicians were caught laughing at the funeral of an Indian politician ND Tiwari. The 16-second clip was viewed nearly 10,000 times in four hours after being posted to Facebook here on February 20, 2019. Screenshot of the misleading post The post has a caption in Hindi that translates as: Look at Yogi Adityanath crying and wailing in front of a martyr’s dead body. The caption has been used sarcastically as Yogi Adityanath, who is the chief minister of a north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on right side is seen smiling and joking with other politicians. There are other online posts containing the same footage and a slightly different caption that have been shared, for example here on Facebook. That caption translates in English to: It is pitiable that a funeral service has become a joke and a photo opportunity for them. This is how they respect and honour the Army martyrs. A reverse image search traces the footage to October 2018 from the funeral of Tiwari. Here is an article about him in The Indian Express after he died of a stroke. The laughing incident happened at Tiwari’s funeral, and made national headlines. The footage of the politicians laughing was used by Indian media in their news reports, for example here by ABP news on its official YouTube channel. The original clip appears from 0:09 seconds to 00:24 seconds. The incident was also reported in other mainstream media, for example here on news 18 and here on Deccan Herald. The politicians identified in the clip are Bharatiya Janata Party members. On the top left is Mohsin Raza and on top right is Ashutosh Tandon , they both are cabinet ministers in BJP’s government in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. On bottom left is Lalji Tandon , the governor of Bihar, an eastern state in India. On bottom right is Yogi Adityanath , the chief minister of the ruling BJP government in Uttar Pradesh. Indian media often use the word ‘martyr’ for soldiers killed in action. They do not for politicians who die of natural causes. For example, this Times of India news report described the Indian soldiers killed in a February 14, 2019, suicide bomb attack in Indian-administered Kashmir as ‘martyrs’. The Times of India did use that term in its report on Tiwari's death. AFP identified 26 posts that used the video in a misleading context on Facebook and Twitter on February 19 and 20, as India mourned the loss of the soldiers killed in the Kashmir suicide bomb attack. Here is an AFP report on the attack.
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