2020 Protest Over Unemployment in Rajasthan Falsely Linked to Karauli Violence

The video is from a protest that happened in Rajasthan's Sikar in 2020 over the issue of unemployment in the state.

A video which shows a group of people taking a pledge to not cast their vote for the Congress party in Rajasthan is going viral on social media, claiming that it is a consequence of the violence that erupted in Rajasthan's Karauli on the occasion of Ram Navami.

In the viral clip, the people can be heard saying that they will boycott Congress and will never vote for the party in Rajasthan. They also say that they will start a door-to-door campaign and appeal to the people to not vote for the Congress.

However, we found out that the video is not linked to the Karauli violence and dates back to 2020. It shows a demonstration by the 'Rajasthan Berozgaar Ekikrit Mahasangh' over the situation of unemployment in the state.

CLAIM

The caption of the video reads: "रामनवमी करौली कांड राजस्थान से हम संकल्प लेते है की कांग्रेस को वोट नहीं देंगे !!कांग्रेस भगाओ देश बसाओ!! ‼️जय श्री राम ‼️"

(Translation: After the violence in Rajasthan on Ram Navami, we pledge to not vote for Congress... Drive Congress away and save the country. Hail Lord Ram!)

More posts with the same claim can be seen here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We fragmented the video into key frames using InVid, a Google Chrome extension used for video verification, and conducted a reverse image search.

The results led us to old posts on Facebook from the year 2020 stating that a pledge to not vote for Congress was taken in Rajasthan's Sikar.

Taking a cue from this, we conducted a keyword search and came across a report by Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, which stated that the protest was held under the leadership of 'Rajasthan Berozgaar Ekikrit Mahasangh' State President, Upen Yadav, to address the issue of unemployment.

We also found a longer version of the video on Yadav's Twitter handle, which was posted on 17 November 2020.

बेरोजगारों की विभिन्न मांगों को लेकर आज सीकर से शपथ के साथ सरकार को खुली चेतावनी देते हुए 24नवंबर को हजारों की संख्या में दिल्ली कूच करने की घोषणा की और पंचायतसमिति,जिलापरिषद एवं विधानसभा उपचुनावो में कांग्रेस पार्टी का बहिष्कार किया जाएगा एवं कांग्रेस के खिलाफ प्रचार किया जाएगा pic.twitter.com/VoxEHECN6I

— Upen Yadav (@TheUpenYadav) November 17, 2020

The viral part can be heard around 00:42 seconds, where the boycotting of the Congress party in the upcoming elections is mentioned.

Evidently, an old clipped video of a demonstration against the state of employment in Sikar is being falsely linked to a recent incident in Rajasthan's Karauli.

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