2016 rally video by Sikh groups is now shared as the farmers' protest over the new farm bills - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 9, 2020
A video of a large group of Sikh men holding a protest carrying swords and sticks in their hands is being shared on social media claiming it to be related to the farmers protest in Punjab. In the video, we can hear  ‘Khalistan zindabad’ chants from the protestors. In the wake of ongoing farmers protest over the new farm bills, this video going viral on social media. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Sikh farmers carrying swords, sticks and chanting ‘Khalistan zindabad’ in the ongoing protest against farm bills.
Fact: Video shared in the post is an old one. This video shows a rally conducted by a large group of Sikh men in 2016. This rally was conducted in protest of the Lalkar Rally planned by Akhila Bharatiya Hindu Suraksha Samiti (ABHSS) in Amritsar. This video has nothing to do with the ongoing farmers protest over the new farm bills. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, similar visuals were found in a video posted by a YouTube channel ‘Khalsa Gatka Group’ on ‘25 May 2016’. In the description of the video, it is mentioned as the live video from Beas river bridge and warns Shiv Sena not to come to Amritsar. Mentioning more details about this rally, Khalsa Force published an article on their website mentioning that thousands of Sikhs assembled at the Beas river bridge on ‘25 May 2016’ to challenge the Hindu right-wing party Shiv Sena who announced to take out a ‘Lalkar Rally’ at Amritsar.
The Sikh groups named this rally as ‘Anakh rally’ (rally of pride). We can see the same visuals both in the shared video as well as the video on YouTube.
According to the articles published by ‘Hindustan Times’ and ‘The Indian Express’, though Akhila Bharatiya Hindu Suraksha Samiti (ABHSS) had called off their ‘Lalkar Rally’, Sikh groups organized ‘Anakh Rally’ in protest of the cancelled rally. These reports can be read here and here. Punjab local channel ‘Global Punjab TV’ also reported about the ‘Anakh Rally’ organized at Beas river bridge.
From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post has nothing to do with the ongoing farmers protest over the new farm bills passed by the Government of India.
To sum it up, 2016 video of a rally organized by the Sikh groups is now being shared as the farmers protest over the new farm bills.