Social media posts and messages claiming a controversial anti-Modi rally was organised in Canada by Aam Aadmi Party supporters following the release of Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal on bail are false.
BOOM found that the rally was organised on 5 May 2024, and is not linked to Kejriwal or the AAP. After 50 days in judicial custody, the Supreme Court on 10 May, ruled that Kejriwal had the right to contest the general elections and granted him interim bail till 1 June 2024 in the excise policy case.
The video shows a float depicting Modi behind bars, while Khalistan flags are being raised along with several anti-Modi slogans. A user on X claimed that the rally was organised by AAP supporters to celebrate Kejriwal’s release and wrote, “PM Of India in Jail. A campaign in Canada after release of Kejriwal, do you still need any proof Aam Admi Party’s Canadian connection, who’s sponsoring this party. Itly, Canada, US, France look at their Interest?”
Click here to view the post and here for an archive. The post is also being shared on Facebook with similar captions.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact check
BOOM found that the video is from 5 May 2024, and was taken days before Kejriwal was released from jail. It shows a Nagar Kirtan parade organised to commemorate the Sikh martyrs of Operation Blue Star 1984. We watched the viral video closely and found the text on one of the posters: “Canada’s Citizen Court to Sentence Modi. Crime: Assassination of Nijjar,” referring to the June 2023 killing of Sikh-Canadian and pro-Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose death led to a diplomatic row between India and Canada, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of being involved in Nijjar’s killing.
Taking a cue from the text on the poster and the TikTok account mentioned in the video, @mani86137, we were able to find the original video shared on TikTok about a week ago. The caption of the video mentioned the Nagar Kirtan event in Malton, Ontario.
Click here for an archive of the post.
We ran a search using the ‘Anti-Modi protest Hardeep Singh Nijjar Malton, Canada’. This led us to a news report published on 7 May 2024, by ThePrint, which carried visuals similar to the viral video.
According to this report, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) condemned the incident by accusing Canada of providing a safe space to “criminal and secessionist elements” in its country. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was quoted in the report, “We have repeatedly raised our strong concerns regarding the violent imagery being used by extremist elements in Canada against our political leadership. Celebration and glorification of violence should not be a part of any civilised society.”
A similar report by Hindustan Times published on 8 May carried the same viral video. Further, a report by India Today on the same incident mentioned that the parade was organised by the Ontario Gurdwara Committee. We looked for the committee’s social media handles and found an Instagram post shared on 3 May that carried an announcement of the parade. According to this post, the Nagar Kirtan was being organised on 5 May to commemorate the Sikh lives lost during Operation Blue Star, or the storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar by the Indian Army in 1984.
The post stated that the parade would begin from Malton and end in Rexdale. We also found a YouTube video shared on 6 May 2024, from the same parade that carried the float of Modi behind bars.
Click here to view.
This story was originally published by Boom as part of the Shakti Collective. Apart from the headline, excerpt and introduction, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.