Old visuals of anti-Modi protests in the US are being linked to the recent visit of PM Modi to the US - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 29, 2021
Photos and a video are being shared on social media claiming that these are of the recent anti-Modi protests amidst PM Modi’s recent visit to the United States of America. The posts can be seen here and here. Let us fact-check the claim made in the posts.
Claim: Photos and a video of anti-Modi protests during Modi’s recent US visit.
Fact: The photos are from September 2019 when PM Modi was on a visit to the United States. Modi took part in the ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Houston, Texas and, there were these protestors outside the venue. The video is also taken in 2019 when there were demonstrations in Los Angeles against actions of the Modi led government in Kashmir. According to some news articles, dozens of Indian Americans protested, chanting slogans, and holding placards against Modi on his recent visit to the United States. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
Photos:
When reverse image search is done on the photos with relevant keywords, a tweet was found with the same photos. The tweet was made on 23 September 2019. The tweet criticises the Indian media for not showing visuals of people protesting Modi on the streets of America.
अमेरिका में जितने लोग अंदर थे (भाड़े के टट्टू).. उससे ज्यादा बाहर सड़कों पे मोदी के खिलाफ नारे लगा रहे थे.. ✊
लेकिन भारतीय मीडिया ने बिल्कुल भी नहीं दिखाया..
लेकिन दूसरी जितनी भी मीडिया थी उन सबने कवरेज किया..
अब अंदाज लगाया जा सकता है कि भारतीय मीडिया कितनी गिर चुकी है
😡👎👎 pic.twitter.com/MnJbbwDgwI
There are articles (including these photos) that covered these protests. An article titled, ‘The other side of the ‘Howdy Modi’ which you might have missed’ was published on 24 September 2019 covering the protests outside the venue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the US in September 2019 and participated in an event named ‘Howdy Modi’ along with the then US President Donald Trump, in Houston, Texas. An estimated 50,000 attended the event but there were also protestors outside the venue holding placards criticising Modi.
Video:
When reverse image search is done on the screenshots of the video, a larger Facebook video with similar visuals was found published on 03 September 2019. The Facebook video is titled, ‘Kashmiri protest in Hollywood’. The screenshots of the video were also found in a Facebook post which was posted on 03 September 2019. The video and its screenshots have been floating around on social media since September 2019 (here and here).
Stock Photo Website, Alamy had some images (here and here) which were like the screenshots in the video, with similar placards shown in these images. According to Alamy, these images were of demonstrations against Modi, and in support of human rights in Kashmir, the location being Los Angeles in California, USA.
According to an article by Al Jazeera, dozens of Indian Americans protested, chanting slogans, and holding placards against Narendra Modi on his recent visit to the United States. The protests were a mark of support to the farmers agitating against the three farm laws in India. However, the images & the video in the post are not related to his recent visit.
To sum it up, old photos and a video of anti-Modi protests in the US are shared as protests against Modi amidst his recent visit to the US.