A recent video from Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur is circulating on social media falsely claiming that it shows a nude protest against the Centre's alleged apathy and silence regarding the ongoing violence in Manipur.
BOOM found that the video shows an incident where people demonstrated against the alleged government recruitment on the basis of fake caste certificates on July 18, 2023.
The video is circulating amidst a massive outcry over a disturbing footage which surfaced on July 19, showing two women being paraded naked in Manipur and allegedly gang-raped. Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 20 addressed the viral video and assured that the accused will not be spared. According to reports, the incident happened on May 4, 2023 in the Kangpokpi district, near Imphal. The women reportedly belonged to the ethnic Kuki-Zo tribe while the assaulters were Meiteis. Four people who were allegedly part of the mob which paraded the women have been arrested so far.
One of the users tweeted the video with the caption, "See how people are protesting for Manipur unexpected behavior."
(Trigger Warning: The video contains nudity)
Click here to view the tweet.
Another user tweeted a scene from the protest with a caption, "For protest this people roam naked. But they are not raped by anyone!! (Only few people can imagine) Both scene are different... What happen in Manipur is immoral, inhumane... if we not stop today both type it will become trend .. we strongly condemn".
Click here to view the tweet.
Fact Check
BOOM performed a keyword search using "Men Protest Naked" and found a video of the same protest that took place at Raipur in Chhattisgarh on News18 MP Chhattisgarh's official YouTube channel.
The video was streamed live on July 18, 2023, with the caption saying, "Men Stage Protest in Chhattisgarh's Raipur Over Fake Caste Certificates".
We also found several news reports about the incident which took place on July 18 near Chhattisgarh assembly.
According to The Times of India report from July 18, a group of youth from the SC and ST communities staged a nude protest near Vidhan Sabha and demonstrated to reiterate their demands. They ran naked towards the state assembly building, chanted anti-government slogans and also tried to obstruct a minister's convoy passing near the protest.
On July 20, The Indian Express published an article mentioning that a court in Chhattisgarh rejected the bail application of 29 men who participated in the nude protest.
The report states, "The men, all of whom were from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, were protesting over what they called the state’s inaction on recruitment for government jobs on the basis of alleged fake caste certificates."