A video of a religious flag on top of a truck was shared with a post falsely claiming that residents of Bareilly city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh were waving the flag of Muslim-majority Pakistan to celebrate the failure of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win a majority of seats in the state in India’s general election. The flag shown in the video is different from the Pakistani flag, and the video went viral weeks before the results of India’s marathon nationwide elections were announced.
“Bareilly has become Pakistan!!” this was part of a post in Hindi shared on social media platform X on June 5, 2024.
“As soon as the Samajwadi Party won 37 seats in Uttar Pradesh, peace-loving people of Bareilly waved the Pakistani flag,” the post continued, using a phrase used sarcastically by Hindu hardliners to refer to Muslims.
A video attached to the post showed people sitting on top of trucks waving green flags emblazoned with the Islamic symbol of a star and crescent.
An image of a Pakistani flag is overlaid on the video, and someone can be heard saying over the footage: “The Pakistani flag is flying in Bareilly and police are standing there.”
The post emerged after the results of India’s marathon general election were announced, which showed the opposition Samajwadi Party winning more seats than Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and a benchmark for national elections.
It is the first time in 15 years that the BJP has failed to win the most seats in the state, which is India’s religious heartland and has formed the BJP’s power base in parliament.
Modi will remain in power but with significantly reduced powers and will have to rely on coalition allies to run the government.
The video was shared elsewhere on X and on Facebook with similar claims.
However, the people of Bareilly are not seen waving the Pakistani flag.
It’s not the Pakistani flag
The flag seen in the video differs from Pakistan’s national flag in that it lacks the vertical white stripe near the flagpole and has a star and crescent symbol pointing in the opposite direction.
Below are screenshots comparing the flag in the video (left) with a photo of the Pakistani flag. AFP archive (right):
Furthermore, reverse image search of keyframes followed by keyword search Same footage Posted by an Instagram user on May 19th (archive link).
The Instagram post was shared more than two weeks before the results of India’s weeks-long general election are announced on June 4.
A representative for Bareilly police told AFP that the video “has nothing to do with the voting results”.
The officer said the video was of a religious procession held in 2023.
“The flag seen in the video is not the Pakistani flag but is associated with Islam.”
AFP has exposed further misinformation about India’s elections here.
