DigitEye India Fact Checkers
As farmers in huge numbers started entering Delhi to stage protests on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, several videos have surfaced on social media with varying claims. Among them, one video of tractors carrying farmers and breaking police barricades to enter the national capital has gone viral. Noticeably, Delhi Police has already erected several barricades at the borders of Delhi to stop protesters enter the capital.
Since, several farmers’ unions including the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, among others gave a call for “Delhi Chalo” march to demand the Central government for a legal guarantee to provide minimum support price (MSP) for crops, the visuals are getting shared widely coinciding with the protest.
BIG BREAKING-
Farmers break barricades & enter Delhi.
No barricades or police can stop them.
The entire country is with them. Prayers for their safety 🙏🏻#FarmersProtest2024pic.twitter.com/ybxw1nkkjP
— Rohini Anand (@mrs_roh08) February 12, 2024
In the context of farmers’ unions trying to enter barricaded Delhi in tractors, the video has gone viral. Another tweet said, “This is the situation of police barricades built to stop farmers”, and was shared with the hashtag ##FarmersProtest.
FACT CHECK
Following a request for fact-checking the video, the Digiteye India team took out the key frames of the video and cross-checked them for the original in Google Reverse Image Search and found that the video was not from February 12, 2024 but a week older, that too from Punjab. Here’s the original video footage that was uploaded on Instagram on February 4, 2024 by a user @pb31:
The post showed several clips of the viral video but they are almost a week old. Secondly, they are related to a different incident that took place in Punjab on Febraury 3, 2024 when people in tractors tried to reach the sit-in protest held in support of Bhanu Sidhu. The caption in Punjabi reads: “Young people came with tractors to reach the sit-in in favour of Bhana Sidhu. The barricades were removed and they started moving forward; Look at the conditions like the farmers’ movement! (English translation from Punjabi)”
When we checked news reports, social activist and vlogger Bhagwan Singh, alias Bhaana Sidhu, was arrested in January on charges of extortion, along with his brother by police in Mohali on a complaint from an immigration agent. BBC Punjabi carried out the visuals of tractors rushing to Punjab CM’s residence, while other reports said that the dharna or sit-in protests were held following the arrest of Sidhu, one kilometre away from the residence of the state Chief Minister. Later, Sindhu was granted bail by a Mohali court on February 12.
Claim: Video of farmers moving in their tractors was shared with a claim that it was from Delhi borders.
Conclusion: False. One-week-old video from Punjab passed off as that of farmers entering Delhi in their tractors.
Rating: Misrepresentation — 
