A video showing young men and women kissing each other while onlookers cheer is being widely shared on social media with the claim that it was recorded during the recent Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, where activist Sonam Wangchuk has been participating in a hunger strike.
A Facebook user posted the viral post with the following caption:
“Cockroach Protest” is on its peak hour (on hit) at Jantar Mantar at 2am 🥰🔥
This protest won’t stop… It will continue and grow 😘😍🥰
You can check the post here.
NM VERIFIED
NewsMobile investigated the viral post and found the claims to be false.
To verify the claim, we conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the viral video. This led us to a YouTube upload dated November 12, 2014, featuring the same footage. The upload predates the recent CJP protest by more than a decade, making the viral claim false.
According to the video’s caption, the footage was recorded at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) during the “Kiss of Love” campaign in 2014.
Further investigation led us to a Facebook post published on November 9, 2014, by the official Kiss of Love page. The post featured the same participants seen in the viral clip and stated that the protest took place near Ganga Dhaba inside the JNU campus.
We also found a report by Press Trust of India (PTI), published on November 9, 2014, confirming that the gathering was part of the “Kiss of Love” campaign at JNU.
The “Kiss of Love” movement emerged in 2014 as a peaceful protest against moral policing. The campaign began in Kerala after a café in Kochi was vandalised by groups claiming that public displays of affection were against Indian culture. In response, protesters organised public gatherings where participants hugged and kissed to assert their freedom of expression.
The evidence clearly establishes that the viral clip has no connection to the recent CJP protest at Jantar Mantar. It is an old video from a 2014 protest held at JNU.
Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral post, claiming to show young men and women kissing each other during the recent CJP protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, is false.
