A video is just images and sound. You can attach any story to it.
In the weeks following Maharashtra's state elections, a video from a routine campaign roadshow in Aurangabad was stripped of its electoral context and recast as evidence of communal provocation during a prominent Hindu spiritual march. The misattribution — placing inflammatory slogans at Dhirendra Shastri's Hindu Ekta Padyatra when the footage predated the march by days — reveals how ordinary political friction can be alchemized into communal grievance through the selective removal of context. Fact-checkers, working patiently backward through timestamps and source material, restored what the viral framing had erased: two rival campaign teams, on opposite sides of a road, doing what campaign teams do.
- A video falsely claimed that Muslims had raised 'Aurangzeb Zindabad' slogans to provoke Hindu marchers during Dhirendra Shastri's religious padyatra, igniting communal outrage across social media.
- The narrative was structurally designed to wound — casting one community as aggressors and another as saintly victims — and spread rapidly as Shastri's march was actively underway.
- Reverse image searches unraveled the deception: the footage had been uploaded to Facebook on November 18, three days before the padyatra even began on November 21.
- The video traced back to an Aurangabad election rally, showing supporters of rival candidates Javed Qureshi and Pradeep Jaiswal chanting competing slogans on opposite sides of a road.
- Jaiswal, who won the seat by over 8,000 votes, personally confirmed the footage was from his campaign roadshow, noting that both sides had dispersed peacefully and no police complaint was ever filed.
In late November 2024, a video began spreading across social media carrying a charged claim: that Muslims had displayed photographs of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and shouted provocative slogans during Dhirendra Shastri's Hindu Ekta Padyatra, a 160-kilometer religious march from Bageshwar Dham in Madhya Pradesh to Orchha. The posts framed Hindu participants as models of restraint in the face of deliberate provocation — a narrative engineered to suggest communal tension at a high-profile spiritual event.
The story collapsed under scrutiny. Fact-checkers conducting reverse image searches found that the video had been uploaded to Facebook on November 18 — three full days before Shastri's march began on November 21. The footage had nothing to do with the padyatra. It came from an election rally in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, and showed supporters of Javed Qureshi, a Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate, facing off against supporters of Pradeep Jaiswal of Shiv Sena (Shinde) during a campaign roadshow.
Watched in its original context, the video showed exactly what Indian election campaigns often look like: Qureshi's supporters holding Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan placards and raising slogans, while Jaiswal's supporters responded with chants honoring Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Vehicles flying Shiv Sena and BJP flags moved through the scene. Signs reading 'Vote for Javed Qureshi' were visible in the crowd.
Jaiswal, who went on to win the Aurangabad Central seat by more than 8,000 votes, confirmed the footage was from his roadshow. He described the encounter plainly: two sets of supporters on opposite sides of a road, each raising their own slogans, before his group departed without incident. No complaint was filed with police.
The misattribution appears to have been deliberate. By detaching the video from its electoral setting and placing it inside a religious march, those who shared it transformed a mundane campaign moment into apparent evidence of communal aggression. The timing — posted while Shastri's padyatra was actively underway — made the false framing easier to believe for anyone scrolling without pause.
A video began circulating across social media in late November, accompanied by claims that inflammatory slogans praising the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had been raised during Dhirendra Shastri's 'Hindu Ekta Padyatra'—a religious march the spiritual leader was conducting from Bageshwar Dham in Madhya Pradesh. The posts suggested that Muslims had displayed photographs of Aurangzeb while shouting slogans, and that Hindu participants had responded with remarkable restraint despite provocation. The narrative was designed to inflame: it positioned one religious community as aggressors and another as victims of restraint, all supposedly happening during a high-profile spiritual event.
But the video was not from Shastri's padyatra at all. Fact-checkers working backward through reverse image searches discovered that the footage had been uploaded to Facebook on November 18, 2024—three days before Shastri's march even began on November 21. The video came from an election rally in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, and showed supporters of Javed Qureshi, a candidate running from Aurangabad Central under the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi party. The caption on the original post made this clear: it described a clash between Qureshi's supporters and those of Pradeep Jaiswal, a Shiv Sena (Shinde) candidate, during a campaign roadshow.
When examined closely, the video revealed the actual scene: on one side of the road stood supporters holding placards with images of Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan, raising slogans of 'Aurangzeb Zindabad.' On the opposite side were Jaiswal's supporters, shouting 'Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Ki Jai.' Some people in the crowd held signs reading 'Vote for Javed Qureshi,' and vehicles bearing flags of Shiv Sena (Shinde) and the BJP moved through the area. This was not a religious procession disrupted by hostile outsiders. It was a straightforward electoral confrontation between rival campaign teams.
To confirm the details, fact-checkers contacted Pradeep Shivnarayan Jaiswal, who won the Aurangabad Central seat by more than 8,000 votes in the recently concluded Maharashtra Assembly elections. Jaiswal confirmed that the video showed one of his campaign roadshows. He explained that his supporters and Qureshi's supporters had been on opposite sides of the road, each raising their own slogans. The supporters holding the Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan placards belonged to Qureshi's campaign. Jaiswal's team had been chanting slogans in honor of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He stated that there had been no untoward incident and that his group had left the location peacefully. No police complaint was filed in connection with the event.
The misattribution appears to have been deliberate. A verified user on the social media platform X had shared the video with a narrative designed to suggest communal tension during Shastri's padyatra, claiming that Muslims had provoked Hindu marchers and that Hindus had responded with exceptional restraint. This framing—taking an election rally and recontextualizing it as a religious event—transformed a routine campaign clash into what appeared to be evidence of communal discord. The timing of the posts, coming as Shastri's march was underway, made the false attribution more plausible to readers scrolling quickly through their feeds.
The padyatra itself, which ran from November 21 to November 29, covered 160 kilometers from Bageshwar Dham to Orchha. It was designed as a religious and cultural event, not a political one. By attributing the election rally footage to this march, those sharing the video had created a false narrative of religious tension where none existed. The actual event in Aurangabad was simply two political campaigns competing for votes, each with their own symbols and slogans—a common occurrence in Indian elections, particularly in states with complex histories of regional and religious politics.
Notable Quotes
This video is from one of our road shows in Aurangabad. On one side of the road are my supporters, while on the other side are Javed Qureshi's supporters.— Pradeep Shivnarayan Jaiswal, newly elected MLA from Aurangabad Central
There was no untoward incident. We left the place peacefully.— Pradeep Shivnarayan Jaiswal
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why would someone take a video from an election rally and claim it happened during a religious march? What's the advantage?
The advantage is that a religious march carries different weight than an election rally. An election is expected to be contentious—that's politics. But if you can make it look like a religious procession was disrupted by hostile outsiders, you've created a story about communal threat, about one group attacking another's sacred space.
So the misattribution itself is the manipulation?
Exactly. The video shows what it shows—two campaign teams with opposing symbols. That's normal. But move it to a different context, add a narrative about restraint and provocation, and suddenly it's evidence of something much larger.
How did the fact-checkers catch it?
Reverse image search. They found the original post from three days before the padyatra even started. The metadata was there all along—the date, the caption, the context. It just required someone to actually look.
And the elected official confirmed it?
Yes. Jaiswal said his supporters were on one side, Qureshi's on the other. Each group had their own slogans. No incident, no police complaint. It was a normal campaign roadshow.
What does this tell us about how these videos spread?
That context is everything, and it's the easiest thing to strip away. A video is just images and sound. You can attach any story to it. The people sharing it probably didn't check when it was made or where. They saw a narrative that fit what they already believed and passed it on.