Fact Check: No, Farmers Protesting In Delhi Did Not Remove Tricolour From Red Fort As Claimed By Viral Posts

Fact Check: No, Farmers Protesting In Delhi Did Not Remove Tricolour From Red Fort As Claimed By Viral Posts

Social media is filled with posts claiming farmers protesting in Delhi unfurled Khalistani flag at the Red Fort and removed the Indian National flag. The Logical Indian Fact Check team debunks the claim.

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On January 26, 2021, farmers held massive tractor rally in Delhi to show their aggression against the three contentious farm bills passed by the government of India on September 28, 2020. In context to this, a video of a few Sikh protestors hoisting a flag at Red Fort has gone viral claiming that farmers have removed the national flag and hoisted another flag.

All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) tweeted the video with the caption, "Indian flag removed flag of Khalistan is waving on Red Fort. Historic Moments. #IndianRepublicBlackDay." Later, the post was deleted.


Rahul Shivshankar, news anchor of Times Now, also posted the video with the caption, "Disquieting assault on our most visible national symbol. That too on #RepublicDay. Our Tricolour replaced at iconic flagpole at #RedFort. Was this protest always about undermining our State? | #RDaySpiritShamed"

Times Now also reported that tricolour was brought down by the protestors at the Red Fort.

Many other people shared the video claiming Khalistani flag was unfurled at Red Fort on Republic Day.

Claim:

Farmers removed Indian national flag to hoist Khalistani flag at the Red Fort on Republic Day.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian found a video tweeted by ANI on January 26, 2021, where it is clearly visible that the tricolour was not removed. A person climbed up an empty flag mast to hoist a flag. In the ANI video, one can clearly see there was no flag from the beginning and the person climbing up the pole did not remove any flag from the pole.

In a tweet by The Indian Express, one can clearly see that the tricolour was there at one pole and another flag was sailing beside it.

Did protestor hoist Khalistani flag at Red Fort?

The Logical Indian observed the flags hoisted by the protestors and found that there were two flags; one was a yellow flag with green text which is Kisan Mazdoor Ekta's flag and the other one was a saffron flag which is Nishan Sahib or Sikh's religious flags.


The flag hoisted on the Red Fort was similar to the flag present on the tableau of Punjab on this Republic Day. Hence, the flag is not a Khalistani flag but flag of Sikh religion.


While both the Khalistani flag and Sikh's religious flag have the same symbol; the between the two is that in the Khalistani flag, 'Khalistan' is written unlike the religious flag of Sikhs.

Image Of Khalistani Flag.

Deep Sindhu, a Punjabi actor, through a Facebook live video also told that the India national flag was not removed from the flag mast, and they only hoisted the Kisan Mazdoor Ekta's flag and the Nishan Sahib.

The Logical Indian also contacted a journalist who witnessed the incident at Red Fort. He shared an image captured by him and told us, "Farmers did not touch tricolour. See in this picture. The tricolour stood tall. They unfurled the Nishan Sahib flag on another pole." He also refuted the claim that the farmers hoisted Khalistan flag.


If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

Also Read: Fact Check: Portrait Unveiled By President Ram Nath Kovind At Rashtrapati Bhavan Is Of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

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Editor : Bharat Nayak
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