CLAIM
Union Minister Babul Supriyo was allegedly heckled by a section of students of Jadavpur University during his visit to the campus on Thursday, 19 September, when he was present to attend an event organised by the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
Now, a video is doing the rounds with the claim that it shows “Jadavpur University students celebrating harassment of BJP MP Babul Supriyo.” The video shows students kissing each other and raising slogans.
The text in Bengali which is seen in the video loosely translates to: “Leftists are lust-ists. This is absolute proof. Salute comrade, this is CPI (M). After heckling Babul Supriyo, these people are expressing their happiness in a vulgar manner in full public view”.
The Quint received the video on WhatsApp to verify the authenticity of the claim.
TRUE OR FALSE?
This is false.
While the video is from Jadavpur University in Kolkata, the students were not celebrating after the incident where BJP MP Babul Supriyo was allegedly harassed. The video is actually from 2014 when the ‘Kiss of Love’ movement was carried out at Jadavpur University.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We searched on YouTube using keywords ‘kiss jadavpur university’ and found a video uploaded on 5 November 2014 with the caption ‘open kiss protest 1st time in kolkata at jadavpur university (sic)’.
The description of the video suggests that it is from the ‘Kiss of Love’ protest. Consequently, we searched on YouTube using keywords ‘kiss of love protest jadavpur university’ and found a bulletin of ABP Ananda that was, too, published on 5 November 2014. The caption along with the video reads: ‘public kissing to protest moral policing at Kolkata’.
On comparing the frames of the WhatsApp video to the visuals in ABP Ananda’s bulltein, we found some identical visuals.
At 0:10 seconds in the WhatsApp video, same visuals can be seen as that of ABP Ananda’s at 0:01 seconds.
Similarly, at 0:15 seconds in the WhatsApp video, the frame seen is same as that of ABP Ananda’s at 0:31 seconds.
We also found an article from The Indian Express, which stated how several students of Kolkata’s Jadavpur University took out the ‘Kiss of Love’ movement to protest against moral policing on 5 November 2014.
The movement was originally from Kerala when a group of people launched the ‘Kiss of Love’ movement on social media to protest against the Bharathiya Yuva Morcha. The Bharthiya Yuva Morcha workers had attacked a hotel in Kozhikode after “alleging immoral activities,” reported The Indian Express.
(With inputs from The Indian Express)
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