Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
Sikh community protest erupted after India placed ‘Akhand Bharat’ map including Nepal’s territories.
Fact
Viral video shows a protest by Sikh community in Canada demanding justice and a public inquiry into the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
A video showing members of Sikh community staging a protest is going viral on TikTok with a claim that the protests erupted against India and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi after it placed a map of ‘Akhand Bharat’ including Nepal’s territories in its new Parliament building.
The claim surfaces at a time when relations between India and Canada have dramatically nosedived in recent weeks after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly levelled suspicions that Indian agents were involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.
TikTok user @kumarneupane872 posted a video showing pro-Khalistan protestors staging a protest against India and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Protest against India and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi erupted after India placed a new map including Nepal’s territories in it. Anti-India protest in Canada demanding Khalistan.” Talking to a media interview, a Khalistani protestor says, “Don’t get your brain washed by the India media.” The interview clip follows a live reporting in which a journalist says, “There are signs that some people are worried at this protest. They don’t want to be identified, and they are covering their faces. There was a warning sent out to participants as saying to be aware of agitators that might come and spark violence, we haven’t seen any evidence of that.”
The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
The video posted on September 26 has garnered 14.7k likes, 314 users have shared it, and 440 people have commented until the time of publishing this article.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker closely observed the video and noticed the logo of CBC Vancouver News on the bottom-right of the frame. Taking it as a clue, we searched the YouTube Channel of CBC Vancouver News and found a video, dated 26 September 2023, about the protest in front of Indian consulates in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. On checking the video, we found that the video frames from 1.24-minute onwards exactly matched the viral video.
According to the video report, the protesting Sikh community are calling for justice and a public inquiry into the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, president of Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.
This indicated that the viral clip purely shows the recent pro-Khalistan protest in Canada and it has nothing to do with the placement of ‘Akhanda Bharat’ mural in the new Parliament building in India’s capital New Delhi.
Further, we checked an article, dated 21 June 2023 published in the Kathmandu Post and found that Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi to seek answers from the Indian foreign ministry about a controversial mural in India’s new parliament building. The mural titled ‘Akhand Bharat’—or ‘Undivided India’—had stoked controversy as it shows parts of several South Asian countries, including Nepal’s Lumbini and Kapilvastu, as India.
However, there is no link between the pro-Khalistan protest in Canada and the ‘Akhanda Bharat’ map placed in India’s new Parliament building.
Conclusion
The viral video allegedly showing a protest by Sikh community after India placed a map of ‘Akhand Bharat’ on its new parliament building including Nepal’s territories is misleading. The Sikh supporters of Canada took to protest demanding justice and a public inquiry into the death of their leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Result: False
Sources
CBC Vancouver/YouTube 26 September, 2023
Kathmandu Post 21 June, 2023
Aljazeera 27 September, 2023
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
