Several posts (here, here, and here) featuring a video of a man inappropriately touching a woman at a rally are being widely shared across social media platforms. The viral clip shows a woman in a pink salwar kameez participating in a rally, with chants of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ audible in the background. A man standing beside her is seen touching her inappropriately as they move along the rally route. The claim accompanying the video suggests that it depicts a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader publicly groping a female party worker during the rally. In this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in these posts.
Claim: Video depicting a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader groping a female party worker during a rally.
Fact: The viral video is not associated with the BJP. It dates back to 2007 and originates from Pakistan. The audio of the original video has been altered to include ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans and is being shared to spread misinformation. According to reports, the individuals in the footage are identified as Yousaf Raza Gilani and Sherry Rehman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and the incident took place during a rally in 2007.Therefore, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To learn more about the viral video, we conducted a Google reverse image search using keyframes from the footage. This search led us to a video (archived link) posted on YouTube on 16 May 2007, titled ‘Sherry Rehman, Yousaf Raza Gilani, PPP Rally’.
During this search, we also discovered other videos on YouTube (here, here, and here) that were identical to the viral clip. These videos also identified the man in the footage as Yousaf Raza Gilani and the woman as Sherry Rehman, stating that the incident occurred during a PPP rally in 2007. In these videos, we can clearly hear that people are not chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans. This indicates that the audio of the video has been altered to include ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans and is being shared to spread misinformation.
PPP refers to the Pakistan People’s Party and the video shows Rehman and former PM Gilani at a rally. Taking cues from this, we conducted a relevant keyword search on the internet to learn more about this incident. Our search led us to a story published by ‘The Guardian’ on 05 September 2008, which discussed this protest in Pakistan. The article referenced ‘prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s infamous apparent grope of information minister Sherry Rehman at a political rally in 2007.’ Additionally, an article from Dainik Bhaskar discussing this incident can be found here. However, we could not independently verify the exact date and location of the video. Nevertheless, all this information makes it evident that the viral video dates back to 2007 and originates from Pakistan.
To sum it up, an old video from Pakistan is being falsely shared as a video showing a BJP leader groping a female party worker during a rally.
