New Delhi, October 12, 2022 (PPI-OT):Hindutva extremists don’t want to let any opportunity go without maligning Pakistan, Indian Muslims and opposition party Congress A latest report filed by AFP refers to a video of a procession of people wherein the waving of green flags has been shown as viewed by thousands of times in Hindi-language social media posts that claim it shows Pakistan’s national flag being waved at a march organised by Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi to highlight inequality and economic problems in India.
This is false. A state legislator from the Indian Union Muslim League, a political party based in the southern state of Kerala, told AFP the video shows its members waving the party’s flag — not the Pakistan flag. The video was shared here on Facebook on October 2, 2022 and has since been viewed more than 4,300 times. It shows a boy waving a green flag in front of a procession of people waving identical flags.
The clip appears to have been slowed down from its original speed and has been edited to include music. The post’s Hindi-language caption translates as, “Pakistan’s flag was waved during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra (Unite India march). This has become Bharat Todo Yatra (Divide India march) Hindus should boycott Congress.” The “Bharat Jodo Yatra” was started by Rahul Gandhi — a leader of the opposition Indian National Congress — in early September.
Identical videos were shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here and here, and on Twitter here and here. But the claims are false. The video shows people waving the flag of a political party in the southern Indian state of Kerala, not Pakistan’s national flag. The banner being held by people in the procession includes the words “Rahul Ji, leader of democratic India, welcome to Palakkad” and “IUML Pattambi mandalam committee”.
Pattambi is a town in the Palakkad district of Kerala. The IUML is the Indian Union Muslim League, a political party in the state. The flags being hoisted by the people in the video also match the IUML’s party flag, which can be seen on their official Facebook page below: While the IUML flag is similar to the Pakistan national flag, it does not have a vertical white stripe and the crescent moon and five-pointed star are smaller and placed in the flag’s upper left corner.
“It was the flag of the Indian Union Muslim League, which is a registered party. The procession took place on the main road from Shornur to Pattambi,” said N Samsudheen, a Kerala Legislative Assembly member for the IUML, who represents the Mannarkkad constituency.
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