An old photo from Kolkata of 'Go Back Modi' graffiti on a street is viral with a false claim that it is a recent picture from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Tamil Nadu.
BOOM found that the claims are false, the graffiti was drawn on the street as part of a protest held against Modi's visit to Kolkata, West Bengal, in 2020.
The 7-phase voting of the Indian Lok Sabha elections that began on April 19, 2024, is drawing to a close on June 1 with counting scheduled for June 4. Modi is currently on a 45-hour long meditation break, which began on May 30, 2024 at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. The extensive five-tier security measures for his visit has impacted tourism, local tradespersons and the fisherfolk with easy movement being restricted.
BOOM had previously debunked the same image in April 2023 and October 2020 when it was falsely viral as Tamil Nadu and Bihar respectively.
The photo is being shared on X with the caption, "Nobody rejects Modi like TN does. #GoBackModi"
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
The post is also circulating on Facebook with similar captions.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the photo is from January 2020, when protests were held against Modi's visit to Kolkata, West Bengal.
We ran a reverse image search on Google and found the same image shared on X on January 11, 2020 with the caption stating that it was from a protest in Esplanade, Kolkata.
We identified a building in the photo's background that read, "Metro Channel Control Post Hare Street Police Station"
A street view of the building on Google also confirmed that the viral image is from Kolkata, not Tamil Nadu as per the claims.
According to reports, about 30,000 people participated in a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and Modi's visit to Kolkata on January 11, 2020.
We also found details of other protests organised at the same location in Esplanade, Kolkata-- one of them being Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's sit-in against the CBI in February 2019. Visuals from this protest published by photo news agency Getty Images show the same building in the background, with its location mentioned as Kolkata.
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