Unrelated old photos from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal shared as the pictures of anti-Modi billboards and graffiti in Rajasthan - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 2, 2023
A collage of images is being shared on social media claiming it is the recent pictures of anti-Modi billboards and graffiti displayed on the streets in Rajasthan. The first image shows a billboard with ‘Modi No Entry’ written on it. The other photo shows the ‘Go Back Modi’ slogan painted on a road. In the wake of Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Rajasthan, these photos are going viral on social media. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Collage of images showing anti-Modi billboards and graffiti displayed on the streets in Rajasthan.
Fact: Both the images shared in the post show old pictures from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. The first photo was taken in Andhra Pradesh ahead of Narendra Modi’s visit to the state in 2019, while the other photo shows anti-Modi graffiti on a street in Kolkata ahead of Prime Minister’s visit to the West Bengal state in 2020. The images shared in the post are old and not from Rajasthan. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
Image 1:
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found in an article published by the ‘Economic Times’ on 10 February 2019. The news article reported it is an anti-Modi billboard put up by protestors ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Andhra Pradesh. Reporting the same, the ‘News Minute’ published an article sharing the same photo in February 2019. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be confirmed that the image shared in the post is old and is from Andhra Pradesh, not from Rajasthan.
Image 2:
On reverse image search, the same photo was found in a tweet made by Kolkata-based Journalist Mayukh Ranjan Ghosh on 11 January 2020. Mayukh Ranjan Ghosh reported it as an image from Esplanade, the busiest street in Kolkata. Further search led us to news articles dated January 2020 which carried a similar photo but from another angle. Earlier, when the same photo was shared as a picture from Tamil Nadu and Bihar, Factly published fact-check articles debunking those claims. Those articles can be seen here and here.
This is one of the busiest roads in Kolkata. #Esplanade. Lakhs and lakhs of people commute, jam packed traffic r seen. Just look at this place tonight. Roads turned into graffitis, no traffic, all roads blocked, students protesting overnight.
This is #Kolkata #modiinkolkata pic.twitter.com/jDaf6vufXi
To sum it up, unrelated old photos from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal were shared as the recent pictures of anti-modi billboards and graffiti in Rajasthan.