Old images of farmers protest are being shared as those of the current protest - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 29, 2020
A post with images of farmers protest is doing rounds on social media with the claim that these photos are of the latest farmers protest against the three farm bills. Another post with another image is also being shared with a similar claim. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Images of farmers protests claiming to be those from the latest protests against the farm bills.
Fact: Except for one, the rest of the images are from farmers protests in 2017 and 2018 on different occasions. These images have nothing to do with the current farmers protest against the farm bills.  Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
Image 1:
Reverse image search of the photo led us to a tweet which shared the same image. According to the tweet, the image is from farmers protest which took place in New Delhi back in 2018. The description of the image reads ‘Indian farmer displays skulls of colleagues who have committed suicide, during a march in New Delhi, India.’
Image 2:
Reverse image search of the photo led us to a similar image uploaded on Shutterstock. The description of the image reads ‘TMC protest against Farm Bill, Kolkata, West Bengal, India’. The image is uploaded on 23 September 2020 and the editorial credit reads ‘Dipa Chakraborty/​Pacific Press/​Shutterstock’
Taking a cue from the stock image, google search with the keyword ‘pacific press TMC protest against farm bills’ we found the same image uploaded on 23 September 2020 and the description of the image reads ‘Indian Farmers take part in a rally at the Trinamool Congress Student cell during a protest against farm bills in Kolkata’. Hence it is clear that this particular image is from the latest protest against the farm bills.
Image 3:
Reverse image search the photo led us to a news article in which the same image but from a different angle is featured. According to the article, the image is of Tamil Nadu farmers protest at Jantar Mantar demanding relief in the light of the Cauvery basin’s drought back in 2017.
Taking a cue from the article, YouTube search with keywords ‘Tamil Nadu farmers protest at Jantar Mantar’ led us to a 2017 news video in which the image of the same man in the post but from another angle is featured. According to the video, the visuals are from the protests carried out by Tamil Nadu farmers at Jantar Mantar demanding relief against the Cauvery drought.
Image 4:
Reverse image search of the photo led us to a 2018 tweet by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The image shared with a caption which reads ‘CPM-led ‘long march’ of farmers in Maharashtra heralds the future of resistance struggle in India’.
In the light of the protests being carried out by farmers across the country against the farm bills bought by the central government, images like those in the post are being widely shared across all social media platforms.
To sum it up, old images of farmers protests on different issues are being shared as of latest protest against the farm bills.