By: Rajini KG
July 19 2023
A video of water gushing into a bus during heavy rains in Jaipur in 2020 has been falsely linked to recent flooding in Delhi.
Context
Heavy rains in north India increased the water levels of river Yamuna causing flooding in many parts of New Delhi. Many pictures and videos claiming to show scenes from Delhi are doing the rounds on social media,
On July 14, 2023, a Twitter user 'Ramesh (@i_rameshk)' shared a video of water gushing into a moving bus, as passengers exclaim and try to stand in the water. A voiceover in the video says that the incident occurred in Delhi due to heavy rains. The text on the video, which is in Hindi, states, "Delhi is sinking and Modi is roaming in France (translated)." The video went viral when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on his two-day trip to France. The archive of the post can be found here.
However, the claim is false. The video was recorded in Jaipur in 2020, not in Delhi.
In Fact
Logically Facts applied a reverse image search on the viral video keyframes and found that the video is three years old. Indian outlet Cobrapost's YouTube channel had shared a longer version of the video on August 11, 2020. The video was titled, "Water enters the low-floor bus during the heavy rains in Jaipur | Cobrapost." The viral clip can be seen from timestamp 0:02 seconds to 0:34 seconds. The color of the passengers clothes and the number of people match the viral video.
On August 11, 2020, 'Khaskhabardotcom' YouTube channel also posted the same video and captioned, "Water enters the low-floor bus during the heavy rains in Jaipur." It was also posted by the Instagram page 'beautifuljaipur' on August 11, 2020. It was titled in Hindi: "Yesterday's heavy rains in Jaipur ... water filled low floor bus plying near Narayan Singh circle (translate)."
Both videos had a signboard with the text "नसिया भट्टारकजी (Nasiya Bhattarakji) next to an ATM.
Using the text on sign, we were able to locate the ATM and Nasia Bhattarkji board near Narayana Singh Circle in Jaipur on Google Maps Street View. Nasia Bhattarkji is a Jain temple in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
On August 13, 2020, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is in power in Delhi, had clarified that the viral video is from Rajasthan.
According to a report in Rajasthan Patrika, Jaipur flooded after heavy rainfall in 2020. In a video broadcast uploaded to its YouTube channel on August 10, 2020, the local news outlet also shows a similar incident where rainwater entered a moving bus.
The Verdict
A three-year-old video of water gushing into a bus in Jaipur, Rajasthan, is being falsely shared as scenes from the recent Delhi floods. Therefore, we mark this claim as false.