A tractor rally has been announced by the protesting farmers to be held on January 26 to further intensify the ongoing agitation against the three new agriculture laws. Amid this, a video has surfaced on social media platforms showing a rally of tractors covered in lights claiming that it shows a rehearsal ahead of the main event.

The video was shared by a Facebook user with a caption in Hindi that can be roughly translated to, “Preparations for the January 26 parade are complete. Jai Kisan.”

Several other Facebook users are sharing the video with the same caption. 

The video is also doing rounds on Twitter with a similar claim. 

The truth behind the claim 

In our investigation, we found this claim to be false. The viral video is from a Christmas parade that takes place annually in Ireland and has been in circulation on social media at least since December 2020. This is even before the farmers announced the tractor march on January 2, 2021.

With the help of reverse image search, we found a longer and better-quality version of the same video in question uploaded on December 16, 2020, on the Facebook page of Delta Agribusiness. “Christmas Tractor Run. They know how to turn it on in Ireland. Check out this annual Christmas Tractor Run. #santasleigh #tractor #thispartyislit #10outof10,” reads the caption of the video.

Notedly, the protesting farmer unions in India announced the tractor parade only on January 2, 2021, and the viral video is doing rounds on social media platforms at least since December 2020.

We also found some other reports, over the years, Christmas tractor parades have become a regular feature in rural Ireland. 

India Today also contacted AgriLand, one of Ireland's largest farming news portals, and confirmed that the video is indeed from Ireland.

“This video is from Ireland. It is difficult to tell where the video was taken because the video is low quality so I cannot read the license plates on the trucks in the videos, but they do look like Irish license plates. There is a very popular tractor run in Nenagh in Tipperary each year, where it could be from," a spokesperson from AgriLand said.

In conclusion, a video showing the Christmas tractor run in Ireland that has been in circulation since December is being shared with a false claim that it shows the preparation of the 26 January tractor rally that was announced in the first week of January this year.