“चोकीदार को चोर कहने पर राहुल गांधी का पुतला जलाने कि कोशिश में खुद जल गये भक्त (In an attempt to burn an effigy of Rahul Gandhi, BJP supporters ended burning themselves .They wanted to burn his effigy because he had called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a ‘thief’ -translated), read a caption affixed with a video. The video shows a group of people being accidentally set on fire while trying to burn an effigy. Two individual Facebook users, Nitin Pratap and Rajendra Singh have shared this video with an identical narrative. It has attracted a combined view count in excess of 1,20,000 already.

Moreover, individual Facebook users have shared the video with identical text.

Truth is diametrically opposite to the claim

Alt News did a Google search with the keywords, “Effigy burning burned themselves” and found a India Today article from 2015, which stated a completely different narrative. The message posted along with the video on Facebook is false. The people seen in the video are in fact Congress supporters who, during an attempt to burn an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had endured burn injuries themselves.

“Three Congress workers received serious burn injuries when they were burning the effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi today in Shimla while protesting against the National Herald case.”, stated the report published on December 14, 2015. Boom Live had debunked this claim earlier.

In conclusion, a three-year-old video of Congress party supporters who sustained injuries while burning an effigy of PM Modi was shared as that of BJP Supporters burning Rahul Gandhi’s effigy.

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