A video showing former cricketer and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Gautam Gambhir showing a middle finger to the crowd during a match between India and Pakistan in the 2023 Asia Cup tournament has gone viral on the internet.
What is the claim?: The claim states that Gambhir reacted to the anti-Indian slogans chanted inside the stadium.
These chants can also be heard in the background of the viral video.
Who shared it?: Along with several social media users, BJP's social media head from Uttar Pradesh Richa Rajpoot and social media personality Gopal Goswami have shared this video on their pages.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)
What is the truth?: The dialogue playing in the video's background has been edited over the original video.
The real version of the video does not play any anti-Indian slogan in the background, instead, the crowd can be heard chanting "Kohli, Kohli."
However, in a statement to the press, Gambhir clarified that he was reacting to anti-Indian sloganeering that was happening at the stadium.
How did we find out?: With a relevant keyword search on YouTube, we came across a video on The Times of India's page on this controversy.
In the opening seconds of the video, the crowd can be heard chanting "Kohli, Kohli."
We also found the original version of the video on X (formerly Twitter).
In this version of the video, we cannot hear any anti-Indian slogans as heard in the video.
So where is the anti-Indian slogan from?: We also did a relevant keyword search on YouTube and found the video carrying the anti-Indian slogans.
It was included in a news bulletin by Aaj Tak dated 15 February 2016.
The news bulletin was on the widely circulated videos of the alleged anti-Indian sloganeering at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Delhi.
At 0:34 seconds of the video, same slogans as heard in the viral video can be heard in the bulletin.
Aaj Tak had sourced this video from BJP's student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarathi Parishad (ABVP), which is also mentioned in their bulletin.
However, The Quint could not independently verify whether these slogans were actually raised in 2016.
Why did Gambhir make that gesture?: In a statement to the press, Gambhir dismissed the viral claims.
He said, "There were two or three Pakistanis who were shouting anti-Indian and things about Kashmir. So, it was my natural reaction. I can't hear anything against my country."
He also mentioned that his reaction was not linked with Kohli.
Scorned history between Kohli and Gambhir: Public disputes between Indian cricketer Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir have been previously reported.
The most recent was reported during this year's Indian Premier League (IPL), in a match between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
The two got into an heated argument during the customary handshake.
Conclusion: The viral video has been edited with an old anti-Indian slogan. In the original video, the fans can be heard raising "Kohli, Kohli" chant as Gautam Gambhir walked by.
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