By Srijit Das
An old video showing a crowd holding green flags has resurfaced on social media with a false claim that it shows Pakistani flags were waved at a rally in support of Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad, Kerala.
BOOM found that the flags featured in the video do not show the national flag of Pakistan. Rather, they are green flags displaying a half crescent moon and a star, which represent the party flag of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a political party based in Kerala. Moreover the video is from 2019 and not recent.
Several news outlets reported the flags of both the Congress party and its ally, the IUML, were absent during Rahul Gandhi's recent roadshow on April 3, 2024, in Wayanad, following his nomination. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also attacked the Congress for the absence of IUML flags at the rally, stating that the party seeks IUML votes but refuses to recognise their flag. The reports also mentioned the BJP's 2019 campaign against Gandhi, which claimed that the Congress leader has connections with Pakistani supporters as the IUML flag looks similar to the national flag of Pakistan.
Against this backdrop, a 2019 video has been revived on social media. The video is being shared with a caption, "This is NOT Pakistan. This is Rahul Gandhi‘s constituency Wayanad in Kerala, India."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a related keyword search in Hindi and found several X posts from 2019 featuring the same video, mentioning it as part of Rahul Gandhi's victory procession in Wayanad, Kerala.
One such post on X from May 24, 2019, can be seen below.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Next, we took a screenshot from the viral video displaying the crowd holding green flags adorned with a half crescent moon and a star. We then compared it with both the national flag of Pakistan and the party flag of IUML and found that the green flags waved by the crowd are indeed the party flags of IUML and not Pakistan's national flag.
Below, one can find the comparison between a screenshot from the viral video, the IUML party flag, and the national flag of Pakistan, which also contains a white border on the left side.
In 2019, BOOM fact checked a similar claim stating that Pakistani flags were waved during Rahul Gandhi's pre-nomination rally in Wayanad. It should be noted that the IUML is a political party in Kerala, recognised by the Election Commission of India and formed an alliance with the Congress party, among others, within the United Democratic Front.
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