India TV Fact Check: As the farmers continue to flock to borders adjacent to Delhi making demands from the government, many videos related to the protest has been going viral on social media. One such video has come to light claiming that some people are being paid money to join the protest. In the video, some people are seen taking money to participate in the protest while a scuffle over money takes place. But when the India TV Fact Check team verified this video, the claim turned out to be false. The real video is of the bargaining going on over a tractor.
What is viral claim?
Actually, a user named Sanatani Hindu shared the video on Facebook. The video was posted on 22 February 2024 and the accompabying caption read, "This video is exposing the brokers. There is a debate going on the rate of , one of them says Rs 40,000 for protesting at the border for a month while the broker says Rs 35,000 is fine. The broker further says there are laborers working in your farm, you just sit here, if you get food, liquor, then take 35000. This is their real truth, it should be taken as much as possible. Repost more so that the country knows how despicable these people are... Their aim is not to help farmers but to reduce Modi's popularity and they have already told him."
In this video, a person is seen sitting on a chair while another person, wearing a pink turban is seen scuffling with a third person and bargaining. In the video, he is seen saying 35,000, 37, 500... 40,000. It is seen in the video that the person sitting on the chair is repeatedly trying to get up but the other person forcefully makes him sit back. This video is also being shared on other social media accounts with the same claim.
India TV fact check
When the video came across the India TV Fact Check team, they examined it carefully. At the beginning of the video, there is an argument about money where the matter seems to be heating up on Rs 40,000, Rs 37.500 and Rs 35,000. But at the end of the video, the person sitting on the chair is heard saying in Punjabi, "The tractor is also new..." On this, the person wearing the pink turban is heard asking, "Danda-dunda hai?" So the person replies, "Yes, yes, toplink is also there... see the tractor too, it is new..." (The tool used to attach a cultivator behind a tractor is called toplink). If you look carefully in this video, there are many tractors behind. Are also seen standing.
After listening to this conversation in the video, there was a doubt that the conversation here was not related to the farmers' movement. Following this, we watched this video by using Google's reverse search tool. After doing a reverse search on Google, we found a video on Instagram. This video was uploaded by a user named Taayachacha on January 19. The caption, written in Gurmukhi read, "ਟਰੈਕਟਰ ਦਾ ਸੌਦਾ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਵੇਖ ਲਓ" i.e. seen the tractor deal happening.
The same conversation is happening in this video also. Here too he is stuck on the bargain of Rs 35,000 and Rs 40,000. The person sitting on the chair asks for 40,000 and the person with pink turban asks for 37,500. When the desired price is not met, the person tries to get up from the chair. But the man in the pink turban tries to make him sit back by holding his mouth and neck. During this, the person says, "If I see a tractor, I will give you a completely new one." During this whole bargaining, some people standing there are also laughing. Many other Instagram users also shared the video of this tractor bargain in January.
After this, when our team searched the video on Google, they came to know that the biggest tractor market is held every week in Talwandi Saba of Bathinda, Punjab. More similar videos of this tractor market are available on social media.
What were the results of the investigation?
India TV's fact check made it clear that the viral video is not about taking money to the farmers' movement but about bargaining for a tractor.
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