Fact-checking: the video of the former army in support of the protest of farmers shared with misleading allegations

Several videos in support of the farmers’ protest have gone viral on social media by men claiming to be army Javanese. One such video that went viral on social media was of a Sikh man telling how he was branded a ‘terrorist’ because he was standing with the protesting farmers at the Delhi border while he was praised as a patriot when he was uniformed at the China border.

In the video, the man says: “Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, I want to tell you one thing. When I wore this uniform and stood at the Chinese border, I was a patriot. But when I removed the uniform and went to Delhi stood borderline, I became a traitor, a terrorist, a Khalistani. ‘

The full video can be seen below:

A Jawaan asks questions, will bhakts and their god respond?# FarmersProtest pic.twitter.com/nmYFOj3auq

– Resist India (@India_Resists) 28 December 2020

Now, according to a viral allegation on social media, the man in this viral video is the Punjabi singer and actor “Goldy Manepuria”, who falsely claims to be an Indian soldier and provokes protest farmers through his video. Several media outlets have also published articles supporting this claim.

The caption in Hindi, along with the screenshot of such an article, translates into: “The fake characters of a fake movement. A video worked on social media in which a person claiming to be an Indian soldier, When the investigation was conducted, it was found that he was a Punjabi singer and actor and was not associated with the Indian Army. The person’s name is Goldy Manepuria. He is wearing an army uniform in the viral video. ‘

India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found the allegation misleading. Although the man in the viral video is an artist, he served from 2002 to 18 in the 175 Medium Regiment of the Indian Army.

The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here and here.

AFWA investigation

Searching the internet with the keyword “Goldy Manepuria”, we found an article from “The Tribune” containing a photo of the same man seen in the viral video. According to the article published on January 4, Goldy is a former army man based out of Punjab’s Gurdaspur.

We further found a Facebook page called “Goldy Manepuria”. According to the page, Goldy is a singer and writer. However, we found that the person also shared several images of him in army uniform on this page.

Then we reached out to Goldy, who confirmed to us that his real name was Manjinder Singh and that he was a former army man who had served the Indian Army for almost 16 years.

“I served in the Indian Army from 2002-18. I was in the 175 Medium Regiment and served as Lance Havildar for almost four years. My last post was at Siachen Glacier,” he said.

“My real name is Manjinder Singh and I am from the town of Manepuria in Gurdaspur district in Punjab. People like to call me Goldy. I am not a full time artist. I sometimes do music shows with friends. Other times I am a farmer “It was very discouraging when people called us terrorists because they were protesting against the farm laws. That’s why I would post the video,” Goldy said.

He also shared a picture of his Army canteen card with us.

The claim that Goldy Manepuria is an artist from Punjabi who falsely claims to be an Indian soldier is therefore untrue. Goldy did serve in the Indian Army for 16 years and was also a part-time singer.