Amid a sea of unruly members of a pro-Donald Trump mob waving American confederate flags and flags supporting the US President in the attack on the US Capitol Hill, there was the presence of one that stood out: a man waving the Indian tricolour.
The man has been identified as Vincent Xavier Palathingal, a resident of Virginia, who traces his roots to Kochi, Kerala, and had earlier been picked by Trump to be member President’s Export Council.
News18 caught up with the 54-year-old, who said he was not part of the violence that followed when the mob breached the Capitol Hill, leading to the deaths of five persons. He claimed he was there only for a “peaceful protest” against “election fraud” – a claim that Trump has been pushing since his defeat in November, but has been thrown out of US courts over lack of any evidence.
Meet Xavier Vincent, The Man Who Waved The Indian Flag At The US Capitol
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FACT CHECK: Man passed off as ‘bhakt’ for waving Indian flag at Capitol Hill found to be Shashi Tharoor fan
FACT CHECK: Man passed off as ‘bhakt’ for waving Indian flag at Capitol Hill found to be Shashi Tharoor fan
Times Fact Check | Updated: Jan 8, 2021, 20:46 IST
False
CLAIM
One of the men who waved Indian flag at the Capitol Hill siege by pro-Trump mob on Wednesday, has been passed off as bhakt (a pejorative term used by anti-BJP people to describe those who support Prime Minister Narendra Modi) by a section of social media users.
A Twitter handle by the name of ‘Hindutva Watch’ put out three images, two of which showed the same guy with Indian flag apparently posing outside Capitol Hill, and the third image showed a man waving both the saffron flag and the US flag.
New York, January 8
An Indian flag was seen amid a sea of American and Trump flags in a footage, as well as images, of the violent protests at the US Capitol that went viral on social media.
An Indian-American Republican political activist, Vincent Xavier, tweeted on Thursday pictures of the flags India, South Korea and Iran at the protest.
The Iranian flag was from the pre-Islamic revolution era.
His tweet said: American patriots - Vietnamese, Indian, Korean & Iranian origins, & from so many other nations & races, who believe massive voter fraud has happened joined rally yesterday in solidarity with Trump. Peaceful protestors who were exercising our rights. On his Facebook page, Xavier posted a video of a person at the protest with an Indian flag.
Meet the Indian-American who waved Indian flag amid violence at US Capitol
Several Indians commented on the person s Facebook posts saying his participation in the storming of the US Capitol was an “embarrassment for the Indian-American community”. January 08, 2021 / 12:05 PM IST
The Indian flag be waived at the US Capitol during the violence on January 6. (Image: Twitter/@VincentPXavier)
The Indian flag spotted during the storming of the US Capitol building by supporters of US President Donald Trump on January 6, with the intention of overturning the presidential election result, had sent the Indian social media space into a state of frenzy.
Social media users spent the day looking for the person who carried the Indian tricolour to the pro-Trump gathering which culminated in violence and led to the death of at least four people. The incident happened on the day the joint session of US Congress had convened to certify Electoral College votes won by President-elect
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