MLA Ramkesh Meena’s old video is viral falsely relating to Saffron flag incident
A video where a mob chased and beat up Ramkesh Meena, MLA from Gangapur City, is going viral. It has gained massive attention from netizens and received about a thousand retweets when shared by a Twitter user. Similarly, many such accounts on both Facebook and Twitter have shared it.
Claims: The caption with the viral video read –
“भगवा ध्वज उतारने वाले रामकेश मीणा, विधायक को हिन्दुओ ने दौड़ा दौड़ा कर पीटा!”
Translation: “Ramkesh Meena, the MLA who took down the saffron flag, was chased and beaten up!”
According to the widely shared tweet, local Hindus beat him up after MLA Meena tore down a saffron flag hoisted at Amargarh hill, that they consider holy.
*भगवा ध्वज उतारने वाले रामकेश मीणा विधायक को हिन्दुओ ने दौड़ा दौड़ा कर पीटा🤪😡👌🏼😍🚩🚩👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿* pic.twitter.com/RbJV7lZ0GF
— सौरभ श्रीवास्तव 🚩हिंदी🚩 हिंदू 🚩हिन्दुस्थान (@Sourabh3507) July 24, 2021
*भगवा ध्वज उतारने वाले रामकेश मीणा विधायक को हिन्दुओ ने दौड़ा दौड़ा कर पीटा🤪😡👌🏼😍🚩🚩👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿* pic.twitter.com/q5HjN2TL9h
— भटकतीआत्मा 🇮🇳🕉FB 💯 (@bhatkatiatma44) July 24, 2021
*भगवा ध्वज उतारने वाले रामकेश मीणा विधायक को हिन्दुओ ने दौड़ा दौड़ा कर प्रसाद दिया 🧐😍❤️👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/DIvEfjcTOz
— नीमकी विधायक 🇮🇳 (@Nimki_IND) July 24, 2021
*भगवा ध्वज उतारने वाले रामकेश मीणा विधायक को हिन्दुओ ने दौड़ा दौड़ा कर पीटा #जय_श्रीराम #भगवाध्वज #राजस्थान #रामकेश_मीणा_को_गिरफ्तार_करो pic.twitter.com/u1Obc0iQUC
— Kirit Kotak 🇮🇳 (@Ikiritkotak) July 24, 2021
#रामकैश_मिणा गंगापुरसिटी विधायक को आज पिटाई की जिसने भगवा ध्वज का अपमान किया था आज उसको दंड मिल गया pic.twitter.com/c0P68REdwR
— राज किशोर रॉय युवी#प्रशासक_समिति (@rajkishor74) July 24, 2021
Truth
The viral video claiming the MLA was beaten up ‘by the Hindus after taking down the flag’ is false, it’s 3 years old.
MLA Ramkesh Meena, with a group of people, indeed took down the flag, but the video of the mob chasing and beating him is three years old.
Saffron Flag incident at Amargarh Fort, Jaipur
The story began on 22nd July at Amargarh Fort, Jaipur when MLA Ramkesh Meena-led group took down the saffron flag that RSS allegedly planted to hurt the Meena community’s religious code. Additionally, the group also claimed that the fort belonged to the Meena community’s deity. Since then, the following video was going viral and had sparked outrage on social media, with #ArrestRamkeshMeena trending since the next day.
शर्मनाक
जयपुर के गलता तीर्थ में सत्ताधारी कांग्रेस समर्थित MLA की मौजूदगी में पवित्र भगवा ध्वज को फाड़ा गया जिस पर श्रीराम लिखा हुआ था@RahulGandhi भैया जनेऊ क्यों पहनते हो ? भगवा/श्रीराम आदि काल से भारत के प्रतीक हैं ..क्या क्या फडवाओगे ?
इन्ही हरकतों से कांग्रेस मर जायेगी…. pic.twitter.com/avvQVF4aoW— Major Surendra Poonia (@MajorPoonia) July 23, 2021
Many media websites had published a story on the incident. Some of them are accessible here and here.
Viral video of MLA Ramkesh Meena chased and beaten
More recently, another video, where MLA Ramkesh Meena is chased and beaten by a mob, went viral. Netizens linked it to the Jaipur saffron flag row. However, a reverse image search of the video keyframes brought us to News18’s article that featured a screenshot from the currently viral video. Click here to read the entire article.
Interestingly enough, News18 published the story on 7th April 2018, three years ago. The article revealed that the incident in the viral video happened in 2018 when a mob beat up Meena for protesting against the changes in the ST SC Act.
The article mentioned, “In protest against the changes in the ST SC Act, former MLA Ramkesh Meena was sitting on a protest from 30th March leading the demonstration. He also led the rally taken out during the Bharat Bandh on 2nd April. But during this, the situation worsened in Gangapur City, and miscreants carried out incidents of stone-pelting and arson from place to place in the town. Following this, Ramkesh Meena tried to calm the miscreants down, but they did not listen to him. Instead, the angry mob attacked him and tore his clothes. Someone in the mob made a video of this incident which is increasingly going viral on social media.”
Furthermore, a YouTube channel named Royal Star also uploaded the video on 10th April 2018.
Hence, we have enough evidence to conclude that the viral video is old and falsely shared in context with the Jaipur saffron flag row.
