After the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, a video is going viral on social media showing a few servicemen. In this video, one alleged army personnel can be heard saying, “There is one kind of lie, and then there is a white lie. The planning about what will be shown on news channels and what will not is done beforehand. They have destroyed the dignity of journalism. Now the public will have to think and they will have to answer to the people.”
Then another alleged army personnel named Manidev Chaturvedi, while revealing something about Pulwama, says, “All the news channels ran stories on it. I thoroughly analyzed it. The report that came out was wrong. I want to ask, the earlier check posts—who gave the order to remove them? Why wasn’t there an investigation into that? The purpose of check posts is to inspect incoming vehicles. All the check posts had been removed. This needs to be investigated. The government is involved in this, and Arnab Goswami is also involved. A separate discussion should be conducted on this.”
The video is being circulated by linking it to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, with the claim that it shows servicemen accusing the government and the media in response to the attack.
Sharing the video, the handle Sonam Yadav wrote, “Before a terrorist attack, the Godi media is told what kind of trend to run in the country.” (Archived link)
आतंकी हमले से पहले गोदी मीडिया को सब बता दिया जाता है कि देश में किस तरह का ट्रेंड चलाना है 👇 pic.twitter.com/LpZt1zcYgq
— Sonam Yadav (@Sonamyadav_G) April 25, 2025
Another handle, Bhoopendar Nand stated, “Before a terrorist attack, the ‘Godi media’ is informed about what kind of narrative or trend needs to be pushed in the country.” (Archived link)
आतंकी हमले से पहले गोदी मीडिया को सब बता दिया जाता है, कि देश में किस तरह का ट्रेंड चलाना है 👇#EVM_हटाओ_लोकतन्त्र_बचाओ । pic.twitter.com/GFSelSGoag
— (OBC) Bhoopendar Nand (@BhoopSingh99122) April 26, 2025
A user named Ikram Ali also shared the same video with the same claim. (Archived link)
आतंकी हमले से पहले गोदी मीडिया को सब बता दिया जाता है कि देश में किस तरह का ट्रेंड चलाना है 👇 pic.twitter.com/NzhAHpDX5Y
— Ikram Ali (@ikramAli33) April 26, 2025
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Fact Check
During our fact-check research, we noticed that the viral video mentioned the location as Ghazipur border. Using that hint, we conducted several keyword searches, but we did not find any media report confirming that army personnel at the Ghazipur border made any such statement blaming the government and the media in connection with the Pahalgam terror attack.
Next, we searched for “Times Express” on YouTube as mentioned in the viral video, but we couldn’t find the video there. Then we considered the possibility that the video might be old and related to the farmer protests, since protests against the farm bills took place at various borders like Singhu Border, Tikri Border, Ghaziabad/Ghazipur Border, and others, and there were reports of army veterans participating in those protests.
During our further research, we found a video on a channel called National Dastak, which was uploaded on January 9, 2021, during the farmer protests. The video was from the Ghazipur border, where some ex-army officers had participated in the protest against the farm bills. In this video, we spotted similar faces at the protest site that also appear in the viral video.
At the beginning of the viral video, the army personnel accusing the media and the government of pre-planning what is shown on news channels is the same person we spotted in the National Dastak video at 18 seconds and again at 2:42 minutes. This person is ex-army officer Arvendar Singh Rana. He is seen wearing the same Indian Army cap in both the National Dastak video and the viral video.
In the viral video, next to Arvendar Singh Rana, there is another army officer standing, wearing a white shirt and a camouflage print jacket. We spotted the same person in the National Dastak video at 4:54 seconds, where he is seen saying that he has been associated with the protest since the beginning.
Apart from this, we also found a post by ANI Hindi News dated December 16, 2020, which contained some images from the farmer protest site. According to the caption of the post, the protesters seen in the images are ex-servicemen from different parts of Uttar Pradesh who had reached the Ghazipur border to protest against the farm laws.
किसान कानूनों के विरोध के लिए यूपी की अलग-अलग जगहों से आए पूर्व सैनिक गाजीपुर बॉर्डर पहुंचे।
— ANI_HindiNews (@AHindinews) December 16, 2020
पूर्व सैनिक संगठन से सूबेदार रहे जे.पी. मिश्रा ने बताया, "ओडिशा से भी और लोग आज आ रहे हैं। साढ़े 10 बजे तक लगभग 200 लोग आ जाएंगे। किसानों के साथ अब संत और सैनिक समाज दोनों खड़े हैं। " pic.twitter.com/z7Rbuc6qRM
The images from the ANI post show the same person wearing a white shirt and a camouflage print jacket, as seen in both the viral video and the National Dastak video. This individual is JP Mishra, a former Subedar from the Ex-Servicemen Association.
In the viral video, Manidev Chaturvedi, who made some revelations while blaming the government for the Pulwama attack, is also seen in the National Dastak video. In the viral video, he is wearing a cap with black sunglasses placed on top of it. He appears in the same outfit at 9:39 minutes in the YouTube video.
The visuals seen in the YouTube video indicate that the viral video and the interview of ex-servicemen on National Dastak are from the same day.
During further research, we also found a report about Manidev Chaturvedi published by Dainik Bhaskar on November 9, 2022. According to the report, Manidev, a resident of Dharhara village, is the divisional spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait faction). He was arrested along with Omveer Singh. Manidev and his associate Omveer got into an altercation with Naib Tehsildar Sunil Kumar Singh, police station in-charge Atul Prajapati, and other revenue officials, during which they abused them and threw the registers kept on the table. The police immediately arrested both of them. According to the police, Manidev often argues with officials, takes money from people in the name of getting their work done, calls himself a farmer leader, and misbehaves with officials by flaunting his army uniform.
Rakesh Tikait also confirmed that Manidev Chaturvedi is the divisional spokesperson. He mentioned that Manidev was with them throughout the 13 months of the farmers’ movement.
In conclusion, the viral video featuring some ex-servicemen accusing the government and the media actually dates back to the farmer protests at the Ghazipur border. It is being falsely linked to the Pahalgam terror attack and circulated with a misleading context. The individuals seen in the video are ex-servicemen who were affiliated with various farmer organizations and actively took part in the Ghazipur border protests in 2021.
| Claim | The viral video shows ex-servicemen accusing the government and the media after the Pahalgam terror attack. |
| Claimed by | Sonam Yadav and others |
| Fact Check | The video is actually from the 2021 farmer protests at Ghazipur border and has no connection to the Pahalgam terror attack. |
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