There is no end to propaganda in the ongoing farmer protests, where carrier politicians, musicians, actors, professional protestors have pretended to be farmers to force the Modi government to withdraw the newly introduced farm laws. Now this propaganda has descended even more, as now the protestors are pretending to be Indian Army Jawan to oppose the central govt.
A video is being circulated on social media, where a Punjabi man claims that he is a jawan of Indian Army, and was posted at the Indo-China border just a few days ago. The ‘soldier’ said, ‘When I was at China border wearing this uniform, I was patriot, but when removed the uniform and arrived at the Delhi border, I became a big traitor, became a terrorist, became a Khalistani. These are the terms your Godi media had used’.
He claimed that after the new farm laws were introduced, dissents have appeared among soldiers of Punjab Regiment and Jat Regiment. The man claimed that the soldiers are mentally disturbed because their family members are protesting at the Delhi border. ‘If those soldiers leave border and come to Delhi to join the protests, will you bring soldiers from China to fight Pakistan? What has happened to your brain?’, he asked PM Modi.
He also claimed that there are no Gujaratis in Indian Army, and the entire army is made of people from Punjab and Haryana. The man tried to paint a very gloom picture of the situation by claiming that if the soldiers join their parents in the protests, there will be nobody to protect the country.
The video was widely shared by usual suspects on social media to target the Modi government.
Activist-actor Swara Bhaskar shared the video on Twitter saying “Some straight speak”. A large number of Twitter users shared the video posted by a Twitter handle named India_Resists.
While the Modi haters shared the video believing the man to be a soldier of Indian Army, that may not be true. The man in the video is Goldy Manepuria, a Punjabi singer. In fact, the video was shared by Goldy Manepuria himself on his Instagram and Facebook accounts on 27th December.
On Facebook, Goldy Manepuria had also asked his followers to share the video so that it reaches PM Narendra Modi.
The about section of Goldy Manepuria in his Facebook account describes him as Writer and Singer, and nowhere it is mentioned that he is with the Indian Army. He has released some Punjabi songs, which he has promoted on his social media accounts.
While there is no doubt that the person seen in the video is a Punjabi singer, what is intriguing is that he has posted a large number of photographs of himself in army uniform in his social media accounts. In many photographs, he can be seen in army uniform with other army officers and soldiers. But he has not described himself as soldier in his social media accounts, and there are no known records of him being part of Indian army. It is not known whether he was earlier in Army. It is notable that in the video posted on 27th December, he claimed to be an army jawan who was posted on China border, while on Facebook he described himself as writer and singer.
It seems that Goldy Manepuria is a big fan of Indian Army, and maybe he had made himself army uniforms, or he was gifted the same by some army unit, as he keeps singing songs in praise of Indian Army.
If he is indeed in Indian Army, he would be violating several norms. As he has posted photographs from army units in what looks like forward zones, and has also posted anti-government comments on social media, both not allowed for defence forces.