No, video doesn’t show a Kuki-Meitei duo from Manipur singing together

What is the claim?

The northeastern Indian state of Manipur continues to burn amid ongoing ethnic clashes between the Meiteis and the Kukis. In a fresh cycle of violence that erupted in July, multiple deaths have taken place, and houses have been torched.

With peace on the agenda, the government has held rounds of talks with representatives from both ethnic groups. There are conversations on reconciliation on social media as well, and in one such claim, a video has been circulating purported to be showing a Kuki-Meitei duo singing together. In the video, the duo is singing an old Hindi film song while the male singer strums a guitar. 

Supreme Court lawyer and human rights activist Prashant Bhushan posted the video on the platform X (formerly Twitter) on August 6, with the caption, “How lovely and melodious 👏🏻👏🏻🎊🎼🎤 We are Humans first. Rest is notional. One of them is a Kuki, and the other is Meitei from sizzling Manipur. The beauty of diversity & Love” along with other social media users with similar claims. Bhushan’s post has garnered 395.1k views, 3,140 reposts, and 11.5k likes. Hoihnu Hauzel, a journalist originally from Manipur also posted the video on X with a similar claim but later deleted it. However, we have retained an archive link to Hauzel’s tweet.

The video is equally viral on Facebook as well, with similar claims. 

However, the claim is false, and the video is unrelated to Manipur and the situation in the state. 

What did we find?

A reverse image search using keyframes of the viral video led us to a YouTube post uploaded to a channel named “Shekinah Mukhiya” on May 25, 2023, with the caption, “Cover Hum apki ankhon main :)” From the description of the channel, we found that she is an acclaimed singer and had first appeared on national television on the show “The Voice India Kids, 2017."

An NDTV report from January 17, 2018, titled “Shekinah Mukhiya, 11-Year-Old Singing Prodigy From Dehradun, Wins Hearts On Reality TV Show,” mentioned her as a young singer from Dehradun, Uttarakhand, and stated that she had made it to the top ten of Voice India Kids. The report also highlighted that her father, Vikash Mukhiya, ‘strummed the guitar during her performances.’ 

We also found the same viral video uploaded to the official Facebook page of Shekinah Mukhiya on May 24, 2023, with the caption, “black and white songs are chefs kiss 🫶🏼 Me and papa decided to cover this beautiful song Hum apki ankhon main 🙂 Hope y’all like this one !!!” 

What did the singer say?

Logically Facts contacted Shekinah Mukhiya who confirmed the video is of her singing with her father. “We are not from Manipur or of Kuki or Meitei ethnicity. We belong to a different background,” she added, refuting the claims on social media. 

The verdict

The individuals seen in the viral video are a father-daughter singer duo from Uttarakhand, and they are not of Kuki or Meitei ethnicity, as claimed. Therefore, we are marking the claim as false.