On August 6, leftist activist and Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan who has a history of spreading fake and misleading information shared a video of a father-daughter duo singing an old Bollywood melody claiming that the two were from Manipur. He further claimed that the two were from two different communities, Kuki and Meiti who are at the core of the ongoing unrest.
“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 and Love,” Bhushan said.
Later many of the leftists and Congress-supporting heads amplified the video and claimed that both the singers are Manipuri and one of them belongs to the Kuki community while the other one belongs to the Meiti community.
“If those who matter had stepped in when possible, wouldn’t there have been a much more lovely melody such as this? Can things be redeemed at this late stage? Almost impossible is the general PERCEPTION in social media grapevines. Those forces who started pouring aviation fuel into the fire and look on as the fires of hatred continue to burn, their generations will have to bear the burdens of their sins,” read the post, which has garnered over 29,000 views,” said a tweet posted by Prem M Kurien which garnered 29k views.
Also, one Col Amit Kumar shared the video and said that the two were from Manipur. He further appealed to the state residents and said, “Don’t get instigated by any political or religious heads. Just maintain peace and secure each other.”
Someone shared this beautiful message with wrong facts.. No problems I'm ready to take the troll.. let it go for #peace
— Col Amit Kumar 🇮🇳INDIAN COMRADES 🇮🇳 (@ColAmitkumar) August 5, 2023
Bhushan spread fake information, girl in the video confirms she is singing with her father
However, the claims made by leftist activist and Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan and other Congress functionaries got exposed after the girl in the video seen singing wrote a Facebook post saying that she was singing with her father in the video and that they were not from Manipur.
“We can confirm that the individuals in the video are Shekinah Mukhiya and her father, Vikash Mukhiya. It is important to note that we are not from Manipur and have no association with the Kuki or Meitei communities,” she said.
She also pressed that the claims made in relation to the video were unquestionably ‘false’ and that the viral tweet contains misinformation or disinformation that is circulating on social media.
After the Facebook post clarifying the truth by the girl herself singing in the video, Congress supporter (as per his Twitter bio) Prem M Kurien happened to delete the tweet and Col Amit Kumar acknowledged that the beautiful song was being spread with wrong facts. But Prashant Bhushan who keeps on spreading misinformation and fake news from time to time failed to accept the false claims he spread along with the video which still exists on his Twitter page.
Shekinah is from Dekradun, Uttarakhand; not from Manipur
Shekinah Mukhiya is a professional singer from Dehradun, Uttarakhand. The girl and her musical skills got attention after she appeared in a popular TV reality show named ‘The Voice India Kids’ 5 years ago. Her enchanting voice got appreciated on the stage which probably helped her become a professional singer today.
Mukhiya also has a YouTube channel that has more than 126k subscribers. As per her YouTube history, the video that is going viral on social media with false claims was posted by her on May 25 this year. The caption of the video confirmed that she was singing with her father, Vikas Mukhiya in the video.
The Father of the girl Vikas Mukhiya was reached for a special comment on this issue. However, he seemed unavailable at the time of writing this report. The report will be updated once we hear from the concerned.
The ongoing unrest in the state of Manipur continues to rage. While there are concerns about law and order in the state, several fake news and misinformation spread through social media handles for political benefits can possibly ruin the situation.
Ongoing unrest in Manipur
As reported earlier, the ongoing violence in Manipur erupted after a rally by the All Tribal Students Union of Manipur (ATSUM) on May 3 in protest against the proposed inclusion of people belonging to the Meitei community in the list of Scheduled Tribes (STs).
While the tribal groups have been opposing the demand of the Meitei community’s demand for ST status for years, the recent protests and violence were triggered by a Manipur High Court order on 27 March, directing the Manipur state government to submit recommendations to the union government for the inclusion of Meitei in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list. The court had issued the order after several petitions filed by Meitei activists seeking the said direction.
The high court also criticized the state government for dragging the issue for over 10 years. The demands by Meities started with a memorandum submitted to the governor in November 2012 by the Scheduled Tribes Demand Committee of Manipur Valley (STDCM). The committee then met Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh in December 2012 with the demand and then met prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh in July 2013 with the demand. However, the PM then asked them to discuss the matter with the state cabinet.
The recent violence however got massive attention after the horrifying viral video of women being paraded naked surfaced from Manipur. The video sent shock waves across the country attracting demands of strict punishment against such heinous crimes. The perpetrators were later arrested by the state police.
