Protests erupted across India after the parliament passed a bill that seeks to change how properties donated by Muslims are governed, but a video shared in multiple posts does not depict one of them. The clip first circulated in news reports about a demonstration held by lawyers against the revision of a law that can potentially ban them from holding strikes.
“Lawyers are protesting in large numbers by blocking the roads against the Waqf Board Bill!! The slogan of the lawyers is, ‘dictatorship will not run on the strength of MP, take back your devious law’,” reads the Hindi-language caption to the video shared on Facebook on April 5, 2025.
The blurry clip shows lawyers raising their fists and clapping together while chanting in unison.
Screenshot of the false post, taken on April 15, 2025
The footage in the false posts also surfaced on Facebook as well as X and Instagram.
It was widely shared after India’s parliament passed a bill which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government argues will boost transparency to the powerful Waqf boards (archived link).
There are around two dozen of the Muslim land-owning organisations across the South Asian nation, owning some 900,000 acres (364,000 hectares), a multi-billion-dollar property empire that makes them one of the biggest landholders alongside the railways and the defence forces.
Indian outlets reported that protests erupted in various parts of the country after the bill was passed. Opposition parties have criticised the government for pushing “polarising politics” at the expense of India’s Muslim minority of 200 million (archived link).
But the clip shows a protest against another bill.
Unrelated rally
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes of the falsely shared video led to the same footage published on the YouTube channel of HNP News on February 22, 2025 (archived link).
“Hundreds of thousands of lawyers blocked the roads of Delhi? The Modi government was shocked to see this! Watch it quickly,” reads its Hindi-language caption.
The exact visuals can be seen in the footage after the 1:36 timestamp.
The video shows lawyers holding placards which say, “Dictatorship won’t work” and “Take back Advocate (Amendment) Bill 2025”. People can also be heard chanting, “The government will have to withdraw this devious law.”
Screenshot comparisons of the video in the false post (L) and the YouTube video
Nitin Ahlawat, a former head of the Tis Hazari District Courts who was present at the rally, told AFP the protest was held against proposed amendments to the Advocates Act and has nothing to do with the Waqf reforms demonstrations.
Indian news website The Hindu also reported on the protests on February 18 (archived link).
The Ministry of Law and Justice said the amendments were designed to bring the legal profession and education in line with global best practices (archived link).
But the government announced on February 22 it would shelve the bill following criticism from lawyers saying it infringed their rights to boycott or abstain from court work (archived link).
AFP has debunked other false claims related to the Waqf reforms.
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