Video from Ireland aired by Zee News as farmers preparing for ‘war’ with tractors

A video of a fleet of tractors adorned with twinkling lights has been making the rounds on social media. Several users are claiming that these visuals show farmers preparing for the upcoming tractor rally to be held on Republic Day. Zee News posted a clip from its January 19 broadcast on Facebook. The post was captioned, “Preparing for a war with tractors?” In this broadcast, the viral clip in question appears at the 3:52 mark.

“Why use such tractors of terror in the farmer protests? Are these tractors a means of waging war with the law? Are these farmers’ tractors or terror tractors? Think for yourself what kind of protest is being held in the name of the farmer protests where a tractor is loaded with cannons?… Is this their preparation for waging war against the country on the occasion of Republic Day in Delhi?… And now look at another video that has been going viral on social media…Here, the tractors have been decorated with lights so that on Republic Day, the world can see the opposition to the new farm laws and more anti-India propaganda spreads,” narrated the Zee News anchor. (Archive link)

A Facebook page titled ‘IT and Social Media Cell Congress’ posted the viral clip and wrote, “Preparations for the rally on Republic Day are in full swing!” It had racked up more than 14,000 views at the time of writing. (Archive link)

Pooja Chadha, associated with Congress, also shared the video and accompanying claim. (Archive link)

The video has also made its way to Twitter. It was uploaded on YouTube with the caption, “Long live farmer-laborer unity!”

26 जनवरी परेड की #झांकी
तैयारी जोरों से चल रही है 😍👇🏻😍@Iamarfat9@BhagalSanju@reji_peter@IndiaAwakened_@karnataka_inc@Devrnder18@Haraprasad_@SauravS_13@abhi_mor1pic.twitter.com/LCAvvH1WyN

— λνηιδh Jλιη🇮🇳 (@AvnishJainIND) January 17, 2021

Fact-check

Alt News performed a reverse image search using stills from the video. We found the original clip posted on Facebook on December 15, 2020. This is a longer version of the viral video. According to this post, the video shows a tractor rally held in Ireland during Christmas.

According to a story on Irish Examiner dated December 20, 2020, it’s an annual Christmas tradition in Ireland to hold a parade with tractors decorated with lights However, the Tractor Run was cancelled this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. The report also said that people were told to decorate their tractors and submit videos that would later be shared on social media. A Facebook page named ‘Christmas Tractors of Nenagh’ posted a video of their tractor parade.

According to the Irish Farmers Journal, the video of the parade at Nenagh was to be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube on December 19. The link to the clip can be found in this article.

 

Alt News was unable to confirm if the video was shot in Nenagh. However, it is clear that the viral clip was taken at a tractor parade ahead of Christmas. It is in no way linked to Indian farmers preparing for their tractor rally to be held next week on Republic Day.