No, video does not show a Pakistani flag waved at Congress rally in Karnataka

By: Rajini KG
April 25 2024

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Viral video shared on social media. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is being claimed?

Just days before thirteen constituencies in Karnataka vote on April 26, a video of an election rally has emerged claiming that a Pakistani flag was waved at a Congress rally in the south Indian state's Tumakuru district. The video shows many people waving the Indian national flag and someone waving a green flag with a crescent moon and a flag. An archived version of a post sharing the clip can be found here.

The voiceover in the video claims in Kannada that the video was taken during a Congress rally held in Gubbi Gate, Tumakuru, and a "Pakistani flag" was hoisted during the rally. The audio also urges the public not to vote for Congress because if they do, then "Hindustan will transform into Pakistan."

Viral video shared on social media. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the polarising claim stems from a video that is at least six years old, and the flag seen in the video is the Islamic flag.

Here are the facts

A reverse image search shows that the oldest version of the viral video is from May 2018. We found the same video was shared from the X account '@Sushil Kedia' (archive here) on May 11, 2018. This X post also claims the video is from a Congress rally near Gubbi Gate in Tumakuru, ahead of the Karnataka legislative assembly elections held on May 12, 2018. Regarding the flag in question, the post stated, "If it is Pakistan's flag, put @RahulGandhi behind bars. If it is the flag of Islam, we should plead with the Election Commissioner to act!" (Rahul Gandhi was the president of the Congress party at the time.)

For the 2018 Karnataka polls, Dr. Rafeeq Ahmed Khan was fielded from the Congress party in Tumakuru. Khan held many roadshows and election rallies around the time, and the video could be from his election campaign on May 10, 2018. However, we could not find a reliable news source sharing the video. 

We looked closely at the flag in the viral video and found that it differed from the Pakistani flag. The Pakistan flag has a thick white stripe on the left, which is completely missing from the clip in question. The color of the flag in the video is also a little different.

The website of the Pakistan Embassy in Uzbekistan states that the national flag has a dark green color and a white verticle bar. In contrast, the flag in the viral video is a slightly different green without a white vertical bar.

A comparison of the flag seen in the viral video and the Pakistan national flag. (Source: X/Unsplash/Screenshot)

Further, we found that the viral flag is an Islamic flag that is hoisted by several mosques, Muslim households, and Islamic organizations throughout the world. The stock photo website Alamy has a picture of the Islamic flag, which has very similar features to the flag seen in the video. The Alamy picture and the viral clip both show the moon on the flag facing the pole.

The Islamic flag as seenm on Alamy. (Source: Alamy/Screenshot)

All this evidence confirms that a Pakistan flag was not hoisted during a recent Congress election rally in Tumakuru. 

The verdict

A video of the Islamic flag hoisted in Tumakuru has been shared with the false claim that the Pakistan flag was raised during the Congress rally. The video is old and unrelated to the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.