On July 21, independent MLA Ramkesh Meena tore a saffron flag with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ inscribed on it. The incident is of Aamagarh Fort in Jaipur where a mob along with Meena first brought down the flag hoisted atop and then tore it further. The Hindu organizations have taken strong objection to Congress-confidante Ramkesh Meena’s actions.

Amid this, a video of a crowd chasing a man through the streets and attacking him with sticks is getting viral on social media with a claim that it shows MLA Ramkesh Meena, and Hindus are beating him for desecrating the saffron flag. A user name @Shrish_1987 shared a video on his Twitter account.

Fact Check

In our investigation, we found that the viral claim is misleading. The person who is seen attacking by a mob in the video is Ramkesh Meena, but the video is from April 2018 when Meena was thrashed by miscreants during a protest against the changes in the SC-ST Act in Rajasthan.

After doing a reverse image search on Google using relevant keywords, we found an article published on News18 on April 7, 2018, in which a screengrab from the viral video can be seen.

As per this report, on 2 April 2018, there were demonstrations and violence in many parts of the country including Rajasthan against the changes made in the SC/ST Act was witnessed. The miscreants created a ruckus in the Gangapur City of Sawai Madhopur district. During this, Ramkesh Meena had reached to convince the miscreants but the angry mob did not listen to him and attacked him. The miscreants had beaten Meena and tore his clothes. Ramkesh Meena was not an MLA at the time of the incident.

What is the present flag controversy?

On 23 July, a group of people from the Meena community in Rajasthan took down a saffron flag that was hoisted on top of the Amagarh Fort in Jaipur in the presence of MLA Ramkesh Meena.

According to a report, the group led by MLA claimed that the fort belonged to the Meena community deity and RSS planted the flag to hurt a community’s religious code. Some anti-social elements tried to tamper with the history of the Meena community which was unacceptable to the locals,” said Meena. The fort has a temple revered by the Meena community and is managed by the Department of Archaeology and Museum.  The Meena community in the state identified themselves as tribal with a separate religious code.

Ramkesh has also said that those who had planted this flag, lowered it and accepted their mistake. In some reports, it has also been told that "Jai Shri Ram" is written on the flag. FIR has been registered on behalf of both parties in the matter. 

In conclusion,  it is clear that this video of assault with Ramkesh Meena is more than three years old when Meena was thrashed by miscreants during a protest against changes in the SC-ST Act in Rajasthan. The video has nothing to do with the recent incident.