#FactCheck-Old Parliament Video Falsely Shared as Kangana Ranaut Backing CJP Protest
Executive Summary
A video from the Parliament complex is being widely shared on social media with the claim that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kangana Ranaut has come out in support of the ongoing Cockroach Janata Party (CJP)-led protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. The viral post claims that Ranaut can be seen raising slogans in support of the protesters. CyberPeace Research Wing’s research found the claim to be misleading. The viral footage is not related to the ongoing CJP protest. It dates back to April 2026, when BJP women MPs staged a demonstration outside Parliament after the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill failed to pass. The old video is now being falsely linked to the current protest.
Claim:
On July 20, 2026, an X (formerly Twitter) user shared the viral video claiming that “BJP MP Kangana Ranaut has now started protesting against her own party.”
The post link, archive link and screenshot are provided below.
https://x.com/Kshivasp_IND/status/2079215438664233391
Fact Check:
To verify the claim, the Desk extracted keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens. This led to the same video uploaded on the Instagram account ashutoshjourno on April 17, 2026. The caption accompanying the post read, “Aaj Makar Dwar ka nazara alag tha” (The scene at Makar Dwar was different today).
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DXPQoIAiQ3L/
In the next stage of the research, the Desk carried out a keyword search based on the clues obtained from the Instagram post. This led to a Zee News report published on April 17, 2026, which reported that NDA MPs staged a protest outside Parliament after the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill failed to pass. The visuals in the report matched those seen in the viral video.
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DXPL4tOky5P/
Conclusion:
CyberPeace Research Wing’s research found the viral claim to be misleading. The video is unrelated to the ongoing CJP protest at Jantar Mantar. It was recorded in April 2026, when BJP women MPs protested outside Parliament following the failure of the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill to pass. The old footage is now being falsely shared as a recent video of Kangana Ranaut supporting the CJP protest.
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Introduction
Uttar Pradesh's state government has taken significant step to promote e-sports, organised games played on video or digital formats, under its new sports policy. The plan includes setting up an e-sports centre in the state, providing basic infrastructure to athletes in every district, and including them under various beneficiary schemes. Schools and colleges will also be asked to promote e-sports. The government sees e-sports as a crucial tool for connecting with young people and a significant market for businesses, game developers, and sports organisations. An awareness program will be held at high school and college levels to educate children about the benefits of e-sports. A talent search and skill development model will be created by studying the national and international e-sports ecosystem.
Recognition to E-Sports
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has approved the New Sports Policy 2023 to promote and foster a sports culture in the state. The policy focuses on various aspects, including physical fitness and training, and supports the development of new institutions and connecting schools, colleges, and private academies with sports. The state government has also incorporated provisions from other states to help athletes chase their goals.
The state's first-ever sports policy, establishing a primary fund of 10 crore for the Uttar Pradesh Sports Development Fund (UPSDF). The policy also inducted e-sports, becoming the first state in India to have e-sports in its official policy. E-sports refers to competitive and organized video game events, and the Centre has officially recognised it.
Key highlights of the Uttar Pradesh Sports Policy 2023
The government's sports department, with the help of the industrial directorate, will plan to promote sports goods manufacturing in the state, with Meerut being one of the main clusters.
The policy also promises to increase the participation of women in sports. Para-athletes will be accommodated in all schemes of the sports department, and special coaches will be appointed for para-sports.
Athletes who have represented the state at national and international levels will be part of the state pension scheme, receiving monthly pensions and preference for university admission and jobs under the sports quota. Cash prizes will be awarded based on international performance and will be increased for those who help these athletes win medals at the top level.
Way forward
The policy promises financial assistance to sports associations and academies, allowing them to expand their infrastructure and training facilities. The state will also establish 14 centres of excellence, each centred around a particular sport, through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models. The state sports authority will be established, on the lines of the Sports Authority of India (SAI). A State Sports Development Fund will be put in place to provide assistance to weak players, associations, or academies. Five high-performance centres will be built in the state, providing training facilities for high-performance athletes.
The policy also includes provisions for financial assistance to budding athletes, providing health insurance coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh for registered players and funds from the Eklavya Sports Fund for injury treatment. Players will receive training based on their skill power, with three categories: grassroots players, elite-class players, and elite-class players. Other notable aspects of the policy include establishing sports centres in each district, promoting local and indigenous sports, encouraging the sports industry, promoting e-sports, providing better facilities in hostels, forming committees for international players, encouraging schools to start sports nurseries or academies, and forming a committee for the Khelo India University Games which is a largest ever competition held at university level in India.
Conclusion
Uttar Pradesh's New Sports Policy 2023 is a significant step towards sports development, integrating e-sports into its sports promotion strategies. Under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the state government is committed to sports infrastructure development, talent identification, and athlete support systems. The policy emphasises inclusivity, accommodating para-athletes, and providing financial assistance, training, and health insurance coverage for athletes. Initiatives include establishing sports centres, promoting indigenous sports, encouraging private investments, and fostering collaboration between educational institutions and sports academies. The policy also encourages for organising and hosting national and international level e-sports competitions in the state. This forward-looking approach aims to harness the full spectrum of sporting opportunities, empowering citizens and elevating its standing in national and international sporting arenas.
References:
Executive Summary
Amid reports of a two-week ceasefire announced on April 8, 2026, between the United States and Iran, a video showing a sudden explosion inside a building has gone viral on social media. The clip shows a fire brigade vehicle stationed outside a structure, with people entering the premises moments before a blast occurs. Social media users are sharing the video with claims that Iran carried out an attack on Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, alleging that the building shown is linked to Israel’s defence ministry.
However, a research by CyberPeace has found the claim to be false. The viral video is not recent and has no connection to Israel or any ongoing conflict.
Claim
A Facebook user shared the video on April 3, 2026, claiming that Iran had attacked Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and severely damaged a building associated with him.
Fact Check
To verify the claim, we extracted keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search. This led us to the same video posted on an X account named Fernanda Melchionna on December 31, 2025.
According to the available information, the video is from Santana do Livramento, where a major fire broke out in a supermarket. Further keyword searches led us to a report published on December 31, 2025, by the Brazilian news website GZH (gaúcha zh clicrbs). The report stated that a fire had erupted in a supermarket in Santana do Livramento, and firefighters had reached the spot to control the blaze. During the operation, an explosion occurred, leaving around 17 people injured. The injured were later taken to a hospital.
We also found the same video uploaded on the YouTube channel Terra Brasil on January 1, 2026, further confirming its origin and timeline.
Conclusion
The viral claim is false and misleading. The explosion video being shared as an attack on Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant is unrelated to the ongoing Middle East situation. The footage is actually from December 2025 and shows an incident in Brazil, where a fire in a supermarket led to an explosion during firefighting operations. There is no evidence to suggest any such attack took place in Israel. The video has been taken out of context and circulated with a fabricated narrative to mislead users and exploit geopolitical tensions.
Governments in nations across the globe are consequently vying to draw in data centre investments as components of the wider AI sovereignty policies. However, recent events in Ireland make it clear that such an infrastructure is associated with significant environmental and social price tags. In geographically dense and resource-strained countries such as India, these trade-offs pose some pressing questions of whether today's AI ambitions are socially or environmentally sustainable. The data centre crisis in Ireland provides a handy reminder. It puts emphasis on the capacity of land use, water stress, energy demand, and disruption of communities to amplify quickly as digital infrastructure continues to increase at a faster rate than the regulatory and ecological capacity. These lessons should be paid close attention to as India continues to develop the IndiaAI Mission and establish itself as an AI hub in the future.
Why Data Centres Are Ecological Stress Multipliers
The data centres are sometimes referred to as clean digital infrastructure; however, in an actual sense, they are heavy industrial guardians of resources. Centres of large proportions demand an extensive amount of land, constant electricity, and a significant amount of water to cool down.
The most apparent effect is on energy consumption. Data centres are 24/7, round the clock, and need to be powered with a high-quality and stable electricity supply. By 2022, data centres had more than a quarter of the overall national electricity demand in Ireland, which created problems regarding grid stability and energy security (EirGrid, 2022). This compelled regulators to limit new connections in some of the areas. These trends also bring some similarities to certain regions of the United States, especially in Virginia, where particular data centres have led to peaks in the electricity demand in the region (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2023).
Another primary source of pressure is the use of water. Heavy liquid coolers are very intensive systems in data centres, which tend to use the local freshwater sources. This may directly compete with residential and agricultural requirements in case of heatwaves or drought. In the western US, environmental advocates have issued notices that data centres contribute to a water deficit in other overextended basins (New York Times, 2023).
It also depends on local pollution and land use. Data centres are normally constructed on large plots close to urban or peri-urban centres, having good accessibility. This may push aside farmlands, increase property rates, and change local ecologies. The backup diesel generators, which are employed during power cuts, add to air and noise pollutants, and they thus impact the adjacent communities.
Ireland’s Experience and the Social Backlash
The low corporate taxes, cool climate, and PIC access to the EU market made Ireland a big data centre hub. The concentration of facilities around Dublin was, however, done unintentionally, leading to its rapid concentration. The population in their local communities also experienced mounting housing pressure, power competition, and underemployment because the number of long-term jobs created by a data centre is comparatively low.
The Irish government later realised that data centre expansion was causing strain on climate commitments and electricity infrastructure on a national level. The grid operators started denying new connections to data centres in sections of the country, which amounted to a kind of moratorium on further growth (TechPolicy.Press, 2024). What was initially a digital success story became a government issue, an ecology versus economic plan clash.
This experience particularly applies to smaller or densely populated countries. Countries such as Ireland and India have concentrated influences on fewer points, unlike the United States or China, which are able to spread data centres over wide areas.
India’s Emerging Data Centre Geography
India is advertising data centres as a way of advancing its digital and AI platforms. There are a number of states that have published data centre policies, such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh. The connectivity, financial infrastructure, and location to large user bases are making Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Noida major hubs (MeitY, 2023).
Nevertheless, these areas are already stressed in terms of the environment. Mumbai also suffers from land shortage and flooding. There is a permanent water scarcity in Chennai. Hyderabad and Noida cannot cope with the intensity of population growth and energy demand in urban areas. Locating such large-scale data centres in these locations will pose a risk of augmenting the existing vulnerabilities instead of decentralising the benefits of development.
India, in contrast to the United States or China, does not have continental-scale low-density areas with spare water and power near demand centres. Each additional data centre in India is thus likely to have an impact on an increasing number of people per unit of infrastructure, by land acquisition, water diversion, grid pressure, or environmental externalities.
Community Impacts and Uneven Costs
The cost incurred by local communities to increase their data centre expansion is not proportionate to the benefits enjoyed. The after construction efforts to generate employment is minimal and the long term effects include strains on infrastructure. Tariffs can be increased with the growth of electric power demand. The extraction of water may have impacts on local supply. The prices of real estate may crowd out the lower-income population.
These impacts may be enhanced in India, where urban inequality is already high. The informal settlements along the industrial areas are such that they are vulnerable to pollution as well as diversion of resources. Data centres will otherwise be yet another project that creates unequal development without proper consultation with the community and other environmental protection measures.
What This Means for India’s AI Sovereignty Plans
The IndiaAI Mission of India focuses on developing local AI potential, data networks, and processing units to minimise the use of external systems ( IndiaAI Mission Document, 2024). This vision is based on data centres. Nevertheless, the concept of simple AI autonomy is made difficult by ecological limits.
An AI infrastructure that compromises water security, energy availability, or climate objectives could come under opposition and regulation backlash, as in the case of Ireland. This would delay deployment and add up to more expenses. Physical expansion is not sufficient to have true AI sovereignty. It should also take into consideration sustainability, decentralisation, and efficiency.
This brings about strategic concerns. India must invest more vigorously in energy-efficient computing, edge AI and model optimisation as opposed to scale. Is renewable energy integration viable to maintain the information centre demand? Is data centre siting to comply with long term water and land use planning, and not the short-term incentives of investment?
Towards a Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Strategy
India can still afford to learn not to repeat the errors experienced elsewhere. This will necessitate data centres being regarded as digital assets, not important infrastructures that have an environmental and social impact. Both more robust environmental impact assessments and public water and energy accounting and community involvement must become unavoidable.
From an AI policy perspective, sustainability should be seen as a pillar of sovereignty. An AI ecosystem that depends on fragile ecological foundations is not resilient. By learning from Ireland and adapting global lessons to local realities, India can pursue AI leadership without creating new environmental crises.
The future of AI will not be decided only by algorithms and talent. It will also be shaped by land, water, energy, and the communities that live alongside digital infrastructure. Ignoring those realities would make AI ambition fragile rather than sovereign.
References
- TechPolicy.Press. What Ireland’s Data Center Crisis Means for the EU’s AI Sovereignty Plans. 2024. https://techpolicy.press
- EirGrid. Electricity Demand Forecast Statement. 2022. https://www.eirgridgroup.com
- U.S. Energy Information Administration. Data Centers and Energy Demand. 2023. https://www.eia.gov
- New York Times. Data Centers Are Straining Water Supplies in the American West. 2023. https://www.nytimes.com
- Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. India Data Centre Policy and Digital Infrastructure Initiatives. 2023. https://www.meity.gov.in
- IndiaAI Mission. Official Mission Document and Framework. 2024. https://indiaai.gov.in
