Fact Check: Viral clip of Gambhir showing finger to anti-India slogans is doctored

Former cricketer and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Gautam Gambhir was on a sticky wicket after a video of him showing his middle finger to cricket fans at a stadium went viral. The video was allegedly shot during an Asia Cup 2023 India-Pakistan match in Sri Lanka on September 2.

In the video, the crowd could be heard chanting "Kohli, Kohli" as Gambhir made his way back from the ground. Gambhir and Virat Kohli share a history of altercations and it’s been extensively reported by the media.

When asked, Gambhir defended the controversial gesture in the viral clip by claiming that the video did not depict the true sequence of events. He alleged that the crowd was chanting “anti-India” slogans. "If you raise anti-India slogans and speak about Kashmir, then the person before you will obviously react, and not smile and leave. There were two or three Pakistanis there who were making anti-India comments and comments on Kashmir. So, it was my natural reaction. I won’t hear anything against my country,” he told the press.

Soon after Gambhir justified his controversial gesture, another version of the same video clip started circulating on social media. In this version of the video, we can hear the slogan “Bharat, tere tukde honge. Inshallah, inshallah” (India, you will be divided into pieces, as per the will of Allah).

Soon, social media was flooded with the claims that this was the "real video" of the incident, thus supporting Gautam Gambhir’s stance.

India Today Fact Check's investigation found that the video being shared with the slogan “Bharat, tere tukde honge. Inshallah, inshallah”, is doctored. We can not verify if, at any point during the match, any "anti-India" slogans were raised or not. The evidence certainly does not support Gambhir’s claim that his middle finger gesture was a reaction to such slogans from the public. The "anti-India" slogan has, in fact, been lifted from an old video and superimposed on Gambhir's video.

It’s noteworthy that a sports journalist from Sri Lanka, Nibraz Ramzan, refuted claims of “anti-India” slogans. He tweeted that his cousin who was sitting there heard only “Kohli, Kohli” chants.

The original video was shot during the rain-interrupted India-Pakistan match at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

‘Anti-India’ video doctored?

In response to one of the viral tweets containing the “anti-India” slogans video, a Twitter account shared a screenshot of an AajTak YouTube report, and claimed that the slogan was actually taken from it. The AajTak report from February 15, 2016, featured a video released by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

At the time, ABVP had alleged that a section of Jawaharlal Nehru University students raised anti-national slogans during a protest.

At around the 32-second mark in the AajTak video, we heard the exact same slogan used in the viral video. Further, the voice of the person raising the slogan and other background noises were strikingly similar in both videos. A comparison of the wave patterns of both audio clips as seen in Adobe Premiere Pro also confirms this.

It is almost impossible that the same set of people would be present in the stadium in Sri Lanka raising the same slogans in the same voice, pitch, and pattern. This is proof that the “anti-India” clip of Gambhir has been manipulated.

Timeline of the two versions of the controversial video

advertisement
• We found that the oldest version of Gambhir’s video, where the crowd chanted “Kohli, Kohli”, surfaced on social media around 6 pm on September 4, 2023. Twitter accounts from Pakistan were among the first to share it.
• Soon after, many including Opposition leaders like the Congress Party’s Srinivas BV, picked up this video. While we could not ascertain the source of this video, we also couldn’t spot any evidence of manipulation in it.
• Around 8.30 pm on September 4, ANI tweeted Gambhir’s clarification, in which he claimed that the viral video with the “Kohli” chants was fake and that the crowd was actually shouting “anti-India” slogans.

• Subsequently, social media users began to claim that the video had been edited, and the crowd was raising slogans against India, and not chanting Kohli’s name.
• Around 10 pm the same day, the manipulated version of the video, featuring anti-India slogans began surfacing on social media. “Found the original video of gautham ghambhir don't believe on others,” read one tweet containing this clip.

Kohli and Gambhir have a history of altercations

Gambhir and Kohli have had several on-field disputes ( https://www.news18.com/cricketnext/virat-kohli-gautam-gambhir-ipl-2023-ugly-fight-detailed-history-long-standing-feud-on-field-spat-lsg-rcb-rajat-bhatia-7695637.html ) over the years, with Kohli's fans often trying to provoke Gambhir by shouting Kohli’s name.

We found videos from other matches where Kohli fans could be seen trying to goad Gambhir by chanting Kohli’s name.