Old & Unrelated Video Falsely Shared as Alcohol Being Served at Farmers' Protest

These videos are old and unrelated to the ongoing farmers' protests.

Fact-check: Old and unrelated videos of alcohol and food being distributed is being falsely linked to farmers' protest.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing alcohol being distributed to a large crowd is going viral on social media to claim that this visual is from the ongoing farmers' protests.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

Another video showing people serving food to police officers on the on road is also being linked to the ongoing farmers' protests.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(Archive of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: The viral claim is false. Both of these videos are unrelated to the ongoing farmers' protests.

• The first video is from Kaunke Kalan village in Punjab's Ludhiana district and it shows a tradition of liquor being distributed each year at the mela (fair) held at Baba Rodu Shah dargah.

• The second video dates back to 2020 when farmers offered langar (community kitchen) to police officers in Haryana's Karnal after the protests.

How did we find out the truth?:

VIDEO 1:

We performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the viral video and came across a post on X (formerly Twitter) from 17 September 2021.

• The video was shared by an independent journalist, Sandeep Singh, who clarified that the visuals are from Kaunke Kalan village in Ludhiana, Punjab.

• Speaking to The Quint's WebQoof team, Singh said that the video is from Baba Rodu Shah's Dargah, which is located in the village.

• " This video is from a mela (fair) that is held every year where alcohol is also distributed," he added.

This screenshot is from a story we published in 2021.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

Reports about this incident: We then searched with relevant keywords in Punjabi and and came across a Facebook video uploaded by a page called 'Daily News Punjab' on Facebook on 7 September 2021.

• The video showed similar visuals from the event.

• Ranjit Singh Rana, managing director of 'Daily News Punjab,' after viewing the viral visuals, told us that they are from the same event held in Kaunke Kalan village and that they are being falsely linked to the farmers' protest.

• He reiterated that the distribution of alcohol is an old tradition and is followed every year.

Visuals from the live video and viral video matched: Further, we came across a LIVE posted on Facebook on 6 September 2021 with the caption that said, "Baba rodu ji mele.(sic)"

While the caption didn't identify the location, we could match these live with the ones shared by 'Daily News Punjab' to establish that it's from Kaunke Kalan village.

Left: Live visuals. Right: Daily News Punjab video. 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Next, we matched the visuals in the viral video with that of the live feed and the one uploaded by 'Daily News Punjab.'

Visuals have been marked to show the similarities between the three.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Visuals have been marked to show the similarities between the three.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Police also clarified and dismissed the claim: Harpreet Singh, Station House Officer (SHO), Kaunke Kalan, too, corroborated the details that we had found out.

"This video is not related to the farmers' protest. Each year, there is a fair at a religious site in Kaunke Kalan and that took place on 5-6 September 2021. This video is from the Baba Rodu Shah dargah and the alcohol is distributed as prasad at this gathering."

Harpreet Singh, SHO, Kaunke Kalan

We also contacted Jasbir Brar, a local reporter, who reiterated the same.

The same video also went viral in 2021 during the farmers' protest, our fact-check can be read here.

VIDEO 2:

• On performing a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video, we found an old news report by NDTV which carried the same video.

• The report dates back to 28 November 2020 and mentions that the video shows langar (community kitchen) of a religious centre being served a to a large number of policemen in Karnal, Haryana.

This video is from November 2020.

(Source: NDTV/screenshot)

Conclusion: Evidently, old and unrelated videos of alcohol and food being distributed is being falsely linked to farmers' protests.

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