2018 Incident From Rajasthan Viral As ‘Brahmins Burning BJP Flag’

A local reporter in Kotputli, Rajasthan, also confirmed that the incident had taken place in November 2018.

A photo of a group of people burning what looks like a flag is going viral on social media with the claim that it shows Brahmins burning BJP’s flag. However, we found that it is a nearly two-year-old photo from 2018 and has a completely unrelated story behind it.

CLAIM

The photo was shared on Twitter by “spiritual guru” Acharya Pramod with the caption “ब्राह्मणों ने जलाया “भाजपा” का झंडा............जय जय परशुराम.” (Translation: Brahmins burnt the BJP flag, Jai Jai Parashuram)

We also found the same photo being shared by people on Facebook with the same caption.

Some also simply shared the screenshot of the tweet by Pramod.

WHAT WE FOUND

On going through the replies to Pramod’s tweet, we across several users sharing a screenshot from a Bhaskar News Network article carrying the same photo, which was dated 20 November, 2018.

Below is the screenshot being shared, with the date of the article highlighted.

Using the names and places mentioned in the headline of the article – Kotputli, Hansraj Patel and Mukesh Goyal – we tracked down the Bhaskar.com article in question.

According to the article, the incident had taken place in November 2018 in Kotputli, Jaipur district, in the run-up to the Rajasthan Assembly elections, when Hansraj, a local BJP leader, was denied a ticket for the elections. Mukesh Goyal, another BJP leader, was given the ticket instead, which led to supporters of Hansraj protesting by burning effigies of some prominent BJP leaders and the party flag.

Further, The Quint reached out to a local reporter in Kotputli, who confirmed that in the run-up to the incident, there had been rumours of Hansraj having been given the ticket for Kotputli, leading to celebration amongst his supporters.

However, the next day, when it came to light that the ticket had actually gone to Goyal, his supporters staged this protest. Post this incident, Hansraj reportedly filed his nomination as an independent candidate.

Therefore, it is clear that a two-year-old unrelated incident is being shared on social media now without the correct context.

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