Old videos of ink attack on Rakesh Tikait and another from farmers’ protest are misrepresented and shared as recent
A collage of videos going viral on social media (here, here, and here) shows Indian farmer rights activist and Bharatiya Kisan Union national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait being attacked with ink and a mic during a press conference. The visuals also show chaos in the conference room, with people fighting and throwing chairs. Another clip in the collage shows Tikait speaking to the media, visibly crying, and accusing the BJP of being behind the incident. This viral post is claimed to be recent and reportedly from Karnataka. Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.
Claim: Rakesh Tikait was attacked with ink and a mic during a recent 2024 press conference in Karnataka.
Fact: The viral videos are old and from two separate incidents. One is from January 2021 when the Uttar Pradesh government ordered farmers to vacate the Ghazipur border, leading to a tearful response from BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait. The other videos are from May 2022, when miscreants attacked Tikait at a press conference, hitting him with a microphone and throwing black ink at him, causing chaos and a ruckus in the conference room in Bengaluru. Tikait was in Bengaluru in 2022 to address allegations made by Kodihalli Chandrashekhar in a sting operation aired by a Kannada news channel. Both incidents are from the past and are not recent. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
To verify the claim, we did a Google keyword search, which led us to several news reports (here and here) (archived here and here) dated 30 May 2022, featuring the same video.
According to reports, on 30 May 2022, miscreants approached the stage during a press event in Bengaluru and attacked Rakesh Tikait with a news channel’s microphone. Before he could react, another individual threw black ink on him. Tikait was in the city to address allegations made by fellow farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekhar in a sting operation (archived) aired by a Kannada news channel. In the Kannada news channel’s report, Chandrashekhar allegedly claimed that Tikait had colluded with the central government and accepted money to end the farmers’ agitation.
To verify the other clip in the collage, where Rakesh Tikait is seen crying while speaking to the media, we performed a Google keyword search which led us to reports (here and here) (archived here, and, here) from January 2021, when the Uttar Pradesh government ordered farmers to vacate the Ghazipur Border. Police attempted to remove farmers from the site, prompting BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait to break into tears. He stated that farmers had been betrayed and vowed to continue the protest. He mentioned that farmers had been served a notice under Section 133 of the CrPC (conditional order for removal of nuisance) and accused BJP legislators of bringing supporters to attack the farmers.
To sum up, old videos of ink attack on Rakesh Tikait and another from farmers’ protest are misrepresented and shared as recent.