Skip to main content

PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Politics & government fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about politics & government. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

12,754 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYPolitics & government

Suriname’s President Chadrikapersad Santokhi will be the chief guest for this year’s (2021) Republic day

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned India’s 2021 Republic Day and said that Suriname’s President Chandrikapersad Santokhi would be the chief guest. FACTLY’s review says India would not have a foreign head of state or head of government in that role that year. It reports that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had originally accepted an invitation to attend but later canceled his India visit amid the changed COVID-19 situation in the UK. For its account of the decision, the review cites an ANI report of a virtual briefing by MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivatsava. The quoted statement says that, because of the global COVID-19 situation, India had decided there would be no foreign head of state or head of government as Republic Day chief guest. This directly addresses who would hold the role, rather than merely whether Santokhi was expected to visit India. The review distinguishes that event from Santokhi’s appearance at the 16th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention, where it says he delivered a keynote address as a chief guest. It suggests that his role at that separate convention may have been misconstrued as a Republic Day invitation. The supplied article does not give the convention’s date or describe independent checks beyond the cited ANI account and its own comparison of the two events.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Video showing preparations for the upcoming tractor rally which the protesting farmers have planned to hold on 26 January 2021

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video of tractors decorated with lights, said to show preparations by protesting Indian farmers for a tractor rally they planned to hold on 26 January 2021. FACTLY traces the video’s online history and compares that history with the farmers’ announcement. It reports that farmer protesters announced on 2 January that they would hold a tractor parade to Delhi on Republic Day, while the video was already online before then. To investigate the footage, FACTLY says a reverse-image search of screenshots led to a YouTube video with similar visuals. That video had been uploaded on 13 December 2020, and its caption read “Merry Christmas to the farmers.” The review also found a Facebook post dated 16 December 2020 that shared the same video and described it as an annual Christmas tractor run in Ireland. These earlier appearances contradict the claim that the footage shows preparations for a rally announced in January. The review places the footage alongside, but distinguishes it from, farmers’ actual rally activity. It reports that farmer unions organized tractor rallies at multiple border points on 7 January, describing them as a rehearsal for the proposed 26 January march. FACTLY’s conclusion rests on the identified video’s earlier online presence and reported Irish Christmas-run context, not on treating those January rallies as the same event as the footage.

Vishvas NewsPolitics & government

பாஜக தலைவர்கள் 3 வேளாண் சட்டங்களையும் ரத்து செய்யுமாறு பாதுகாப்புத்துறை அமைச்சர் ராஜ்நாத் சிங்கிடம் கோரிக்கை வைத்தனர். இந்த சட்டங்கள் 5% விவசாயிகளுக்கு மட்டுமே பயனுள்ளதாக இருப்பதாகவும், 70% விவசாயிகளுக்கு அவை எதிராகவே உள்ளன என்றும் அவர்கள் அவரிடம் சொல்கிறார்கள்

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video shared as showing BJP leaders asking Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to repeal all three farm laws, with the accompanying assertion that the laws benefited only 5% of farmers and harmed 70%. Vishvas News investigated that specific video and reported that it did not show a meeting about the farm laws: “ஆகஸ்ட் 2018 இல், லக்னோவில் சிலர் ராஜ்நாத் சிங்கை சந்தித்து SC/ST சட்டத்திற்கு எதிராக ஒரு தீர்மானத்தைச் சமர்ப்பித்தனர்.” The review says the footage was from 2018 and unrelated to the recent farmers’ protest. To trace the footage, the investigators extracted screenshots using InVID and searched them with Google reverse image search. They found a video uploaded on August 9, 2018, described as showing a resolution against the SC/ST bill being submitted to Rajnath Singh. The review also reports finding the same footage on BJP leader Bhishma Dhar Dwivedi’s Facebook account, posted on September 26, 2018. Dwivedi told the investigators: “இந்தக் காணொலி 5 ஆகஸ்ட் 2018 அன்று எடுக்கப்பட்டது. அந்த நேரத்தில் நாங்கள் லக்னோவில் SC/ST சட்டத்திற்கு எதிராக ஒரு தீர்மானத்தை வழங்கினோம்,” identifying the meeting’s date, location, and subject. Rajnath Singh’s personal assistant Ravi Ranjan separately told the review that the video was old and that people had met Singh in Lucknow about the SC/ST Act. These accounts establish that the footage was misrepresented as a farm-law appeal; the review’s evidence does not support the claim’s description of the meeting or its attributed remarks about farmers.

Pagella PoliticaPolitics & government

«In nessuno dei due programmi né la Lega né il Pd hanno mai condiviso la nostra ipotesi di vincolo di mandato»

Publisher’s rating: Nì

Luigi Di Maio made the statement during a January 15 appearance on La7’s *Otto e mezzo*, discussing the government crisis and the Five Star Movement’s proposal for a “vincolo di mandato.” He said the measure had not been introduced because neither the League nor the Democratic Party had ever shared the proposal in government agreements. The review checked that claim against the agreements for the two Conte governments.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Video of BJP leaders begging Rajnath Singh to abolish the new farm laws

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video circulated during farmers’ protests, presented as BJP leaders begging Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to abolish the new farm laws. FACTLY reports that PTC News telecast the video on 11 January 2021 and that it spread on social media amid those protests. The investigation found, however, that the footage was online well before the farm-law demonstrations: “the same video” had been available since at least August 2018. To trace its earlier use, FACTLY says it reverse-image-searched screenshots from the clip. It found similar visuals in a user’s 7 August 2018 tweet, which described BJP leaders as pleading with Rajnath Singh to revoke the SC/ST Acts. The review also identified a YouTube upload dated 4 September 2018 titled “BJP MLA Rajender Singh gave his resignation to Union Minister Rajnath Singh.” Its description identified BJP leader Rajendra Singh and said he tendered his resignation to Rajnath Singh during a protest against those acts. FACTLY did not claim to establish every detail of the older footage. It explicitly says it “could not ascertain the exact details of the video,” while concluding that the clip was old. Its evidence therefore establishes that the footage predates the farm-law protests and had been associated with a different protest in 2018; it does not establish the precise circumstances of every person shown. The review concludes that the clip was falsely presented as footage of BJP leaders pleading over the new farm laws.

FACTLYPolitics & government

Protesting farmers in Punjab blacken the Hindi language signboards on National Highways

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim links footage of Hindi signboards being blackened to the farmers’ protests against new farm laws. FACTLY says the images and video were circulating with that claim, but its investigation found the photos came from a Sikh activists’ rally in Punjab in October 2017, rather than from the farmers’ protests. The rally’s stated demand was that Punjabi take precedence on signboards.