A video of former cricketer and BJP MP Gautam Gambhir showing his middle finger toward a crowd in the stands during a game at the Asia Cup 2023 with chants of "Bharat tere tukde honge" (India will break) heard in the background is doctored. BOOM found that the audio in the video has been overlaid and has been taken from a 2016 news report.
On September 4, 2023, a video of Gautam Gambhir reacting to a crowd that can be heard chanting "Kohli Kohli" by showing them his middle finger went viral on social media. Gambhir later reacted to the video of him making the explicit gesture claiming that the crowd comprised of Pakistani cricket fans who were allegedly chanting "Hindustan murdabad" and anti-India slogans. However, in the video that went viral, these slogans cannot be heard.
The Indian cricket team faced Pakistan in their opening Asia Cup 2023 ODI match on September 2, 2023, at the Pallekele International Stadium in Sri Lanka. Gambhir is a commentator at the Asia Cup and was commentating during the India vs. Pakistan game and the recent India vs. Nepal game. Gambhir and Virat Kohli had an on-field argument during the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) during this year's Indian Premier League (IPL).
In the five seconds video that is being shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), "Bharat tere tukde honge" chant can be heard. The video has the watermark (@xTripti). The video was tweeted by the X handle Riya Agrahari (@Riyaagrahari8) with the caption, "You can't expect better from Pakistan. The whole country is gutter. I stand with #GautamGambhir"
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The same account also tweeted the same video with another caption, "At this point even our Kohli and Dhoni will agree with #GautamGambhir. As a nation we all should praise him. No patriot can tolerate any bad thing for India. Stand with #GautamGambhir"
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The video was picked up by several other Twitter and Facebook users to make the misleading claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the audio in the viral video with chants of "Bharat tere tukde honge" has been overlaid on the video and the audio has been taken from a 2016 Aaj Tak news report.
We found several users pointing out that the audio is old and has been taken from news reports from 2016 during the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) controversy when claims of anti-India slogans were chanted on campus back then.
In this Aaj Tak news report from February 16, 2016, from the 34 seconds timestamp, we can hear the same audio and slogans that can be heard in the viral video.
Additionally, the watermark in the viral video - @xTripti refers to the X handle which now doesn't exit.
The handle @xTripti tweeted that it had added the audio with the chants to the viral video. Several users posted screenshots of @xTripti's pinned tweet stating it had edited the audio in the viral video.
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Gambhir during his interaction with media reporters yesterday claimed that Pakistani fans had raised anti-India slogans including "Hindustan murdabad" towards him after which he reacted. However, these slogans cannot be heard in the viral video.
The video that went viral was posted by several accounts including the account Out of Context Crciket. The video has a watermark of @furqannagra.
However, the account did not specify details regarding the incident. BOOM has reached out to the same account on Facebook and Instagram, the article will be updated upon receiving a response.
