An old 2015 video is being shared as a current incident of the BJP-supported NDA government in Bihar acting strong on Muslim protestors
A video showing policemen beating a group of people protesting on a road is going viral on social media (here, here, here). The claim accompanying the video suggests that the Nitish government, with the support of its current ally, the BJP, is suppressing Muslims who were protesting against the NDA-led Bihar government. In this article, we fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Bihar police carrying out a lathi charge on Muslims who were recently protesting against the BJP-supported NDA government in Bihar. Nitish Kumar government is is acting strong on Muslims with the support of BJP.
Fact: This video dates back to August 2015 and is related to the madrasa teachers’ protest that took place in Patna. The visuals in the viral video show Bihar police carrying out a lathi charge on the protesting madrasa teachers. It should be noted that in August 2015, Nitish Kumar was the Chief Minister of Bihar, supported by the Congress and RJD, and was not part of the NDA. The BJP was neither an ally of the JD(U) nor part of the Nitish-led Bihar government at that time. In fact, the BJP was in the opposition in August 2015. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To gather details about the viral video, we conducted a Google reverse image search using keyframes from the video. This search led us to a video with similar visuals on the official YouTube channel of ‘IndiaTV’. The video was uploaded on 27 August 2015, titled “Madrasa Teachers Injured in Police Lathi-charge in Patna”. According to the news bulletin, the video shows footage of a police lathi-charge on madrasa teachers in Patna. The news bulletin further stated, “The madrasa teachers, led by the Bihar State Madrasa Teachers’ Association, had been protesting for the past four days against the state government for failing to pay their dues for the last two years.”
Upon comparing the viral video with the India TV News bulletin video, it is evident that the viral video shows footage of the madrasa teachers’ protest that took place in Patna in August 2015. Additional news reports covering this protest in Patna, featuring similar visuals to the viral video, can be found here, here, & here. A comparison between the viral video and the news report video can be seen below.
It should be noted that in August 2015, Nitish Kumar was the Chief Minister of Bihar, supported by the Congress and RJD. The BJP was not an ally of the JD(U) nor part of the Nitish-led Bihar government at that time (here). In fact, the BJP was in the opposition in August 2015 (here, here). The JD(U) and BJP had contested the 2010 Bihar Assembly elections as an alliance and later formed a government. However, in June 2013, JD(U) broke its alliance with the BJP. In May 2014, Nitish Kumar resigned as Chief Minister and Jitan Ram Manjhi succeeded him. In February 2015, Nitish Kumar took the oath again as Chief Minister of Bihar, with the support of the RJD and Congress. He later formed the Mahagathbandhan with the RJD and Congress, contested the 2015 elections, and was re-elected as Chief Minister in November 2015. In 2017, he broke his alliance with the RJD and Congress and formed a new alliance with the BJP. In 2022, he left the NDA and formed a government with the support of the RJD and Congress. In January 2024, he left the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, led by Congress, and rejoined the NDA (here, here, here, and here).
To sum up, an old 2015 video is being shared as a current incident of the BJP-supported NDA government in Bihar acting strong on Muslim protestors.