Punjab farmers initiated their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march on 13 February 2024, following inconclusive talks with the government regarding their demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP). It is in this context that a video is circulating on social media, claiming to be from this recent farmers’ movement, depicting individuals on tractors breaking police barricades. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: The video shows Punjab farmers breaking barricades and heading to Delhi on tractors as part of the ‘Delhi Chalo’ movement in February 2024.
Fact: The visuals are of the Protesters, expressing dissent over the police cases against social activist and vlogger Bhana Sidhu. People rallied towards Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence in Sangrur on 3 February 2024. This video has nothing to do with the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march that started on 13 February 2024. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
On conducting a reverse image search using the keyframes of the viral video, we found a similar video posted on the Gemm TV Facebook page on 3 February 2024, with the title ‘Young individuals arrived with tractors to Join the protest in support of Bhana Sidhu. They removed the barricades and began moving forward. This situation resembles the farmers’ movement!’ in Punjabi. After comparing the visuals of both videos, it was confirmed that they both documented the same incident.
On performing a relevant keyword search, we came across a news report published by BBC Punjabi on 3 February 2024, stating that ‘Protesters, expressing dissent over the police cases against social activist Bhana Sidhu, rallied towards Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence in Sangrur.’ Likewise, a video was found on Pro Punjab TV Canada where scenes like the viral video are observed.
As per news reports, Bhagwan Singh alias Bhana Sidhu, a social activist and vlogger, was arrested in January on charges of extorting an immigration agent based in Ludhiana (here and here). On 12 February 2024, he was granted bail by Mohali court.
To sum up, a video showing a protest against the arrest of Vlogger Bhana Sidhu is shared as visuals of the farmers’ protest march to Delhi in February 2024.
