A video depicting a few Sikh individuals setting fire to the Indian flag and stomping on it during a protest is widely circulating across social media platforms, with the claim that the video is from the ongoing farmers’ protest in 2024. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Sikh farmers burned the Indian flag during the ongoing farmers’ protest in 2024.
Fact: This viral video depicts an anti-India protest held by Sikhs in Canada in 2023. According to news reports, Sikh protesters gathered outside the Indian consulate in Vancouver, Canada, on 25 September 2023, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the prospect of New Delhi’s involvement in the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia. During this protest, Sikh protesters burned the Indian flag. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon carefully observing the viral video frame by frame, we noticed captions and words such as ‘Vancouver’, which is a city in Canada. Taking this cue, we conducted a relevant keyword search, leading us to the extended version of the same video on the official YouTube channel of Canada-based Global News with the title: “Sikh protesters burn Indian flag outside consulates in Canada over Nijjar murder,” uploaded on 26 September 2023. According to this news report, Sikh protesters gathered outside the Indian consulate in Vancouver, Canada, on 25 September 2023, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the prospect of New Delhi’s involvement in the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia. More news reports regarding this protest can be found here, here, and here.
Upon comparing the viral video with the original footage, it becomes evident that the viral video depicts visuals from an anti-Indian protest by Sikhs in Vancouver, Canada, in September 2023.
To sum it up, the video depicting an anti-India protest held in Canada in 2023 is falsely linked to the ongoing farmers’ protest in 2024.
