Congress-BJP Fight In Manipur? No, It's A Video Of Afghan TV Panel Clash

An old video of a fight between two panelists during an Afghan TV channel debate is being shared with the false claim that they are Congress and BJP panelists who came to blows in Manipur on live TV.

Clashes between the Meitei community and the Kuki tribe in Manipur started on May 3, 2023, leading to over 60,000 people getting displaced from their homes and the death count exceeding 200 according to government figures. Elections for the two Lok Sabha seats in Manipur are to be held on April 19 and April 26, 2024.

In the 19-second video, two men can be seen arguing after which they get into a physical fight punching each other and pushing one another around in a TV studio. The video was posted on X by the handle @BackOmyGawd with the caption, "Big Fight On Live TV : BJP vs INC #Manipur".

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BOOM found that the viral video is from an Afghan TV channel - 1TV Kabul on which a fight erupted between two panelists in June 2016 during a debate show. The viral video is not from Manipur showing BJP-Congress panelists getting into a fight on live TV as being claimed.

We broke the video into key-frames and ran a reverse image search using Google Lens, which search results showed that the viral video is old and from Afghanistan.

The search results showed up a post on X with the same viral video posted on February 15, 2019, with the caption, "Ladies & Gentlemen! Let's enjoy afghan TV talkshow fight. They are lacking tolerance. #Afghanistan"

We can see the same visuals and sequence of events in this video as in the viral video. Additionally, in this longer video - 30 seconds, we can also see the channel name mentioned - 1TV Kabul.

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1TV Kabul is a privately owned commercial Afghan television channel that was launched in February 2010.

Taking a hint from this, we checked the official YouTube channel of 1TV Kabul and found the original video posted on June 10, 2016, with the caption when translated to English reads, "Amaj Amaj - Controversial discussion about Hekmatyar's joining the Afghan government's peace process"

From the 25.15-minute timestamp, we can see the same the fight break out between the two panelists as in the viral video.

The debate was on Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who had been designated a "global terrorist" by the United States joining the Afghan government peace talks. Hekmatyar in September 2016 formally signed a peace agreement with the then Afghan government led by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.

This story was originally published by BOOM, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.