By: Team Logically Facts
September 21 2023
'Fake news': Indian Army on posts claiming Sikh soldiers replaced at Rashtrapati Bhavan
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A screenshot of a post on X sharing the claim on Sikh soldiers (R), and a screenshot of the Indian Army's rebuttal of the claim (L). (Source: X/Wikimedia Commons/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)
Amid the ongoing diplomatic rift between the India and Canada, several social media posts have claimed that Sikh security personnel at India's Rashtrapati Bhavan, also known as the President's House, have been replaced. Some posts also allege that leave requests from Sikh soldiers to visit home have been rejected by the Indian Army. Archived versions of these viral posts can be found here, here, and here.
Screenshots of posts on X claiming Indian Army has rejected leave requests from Sikh soldiers and has replaced them at Rashtrapati Bhavan. (Source: X/Screenshots/Modified by Logically Facts)
This comes in the wake of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's September 18 speech, where he said Canadian authorities were investigating allegations of India's involvement in the assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar., who was shot dead on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia. While India's Ministry of External Affairs has called Canada's allegations "unsubstantiated," this has led to a diplomatic standoff between the two countries.
However, the Indian Army has clarified that the claims made in the viral posts are false. The army shared a screenshot of one viral post on X (formerly Twitter) on September 19 and wrote, "Fake messages are being spread on social media by inimical agents about soldiers of #IndianArmy, spreading rumours & hate-mongering. Safeguard yourselves against such fake news."
Logically Facts also reached out to Colonel Sudhir Chamoli, Indian Army's Public Relations Officer, who said, "It's fake information. The Indian Army and PIB have also clarified this on Twitter."
The Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check, the fact-checking arm of the Indian government, also published a post on their official X account on September 19 refuting the claims. In their post, PIB pronounced the claims made in the viral post as false, stating, "This claim is Fake & shared with intention to create disharmony No such decisions have been taken (sic)."