Fact Check: Old woman protestor at farmer's rally is not Shaheen Bagh's Bilkis Dadi
she is the Bilkis Bano. Bano is popularly known as Shaheen Bagh's Bilkis dadi......
By Vamsi Krishna Pothuru Published on 30 Nov 2020 6:36 AM GMT
Ever since the passing of three farm bills in September 2020, there have been widespread farmers' protests across the country. For the past few days, thousands of farmers from Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh are storming the national capital in protest against farm bills 2020 and demanding Minimum Support Price (MSP).
Amid this, several users including verified Twitter handles shared a picture of an older woman in a protest and claimed that she is the Bilkis Bano. Bano is popularly known as Shaheen Bagh's Bilkis dadi who participated in anti- CAA protests last year.
Users shared two pictures comparing the original picture of Bilkis Bano with an elderly woman from farmers' protests. "1. Dadi at Shaheen Bagh 2. Dadi as Farmer? Dadi available for hire on per day basis. Food, cloth, award, and pocket money extra. CONTACT: @RahulGandhi, @priyankagandhi or at @incindia office, 24, Akbar Road, New Delhi," reads the message.
This sarcastic message hints at demeaning ongoing farmers' protests.
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The same image of the elder woman shared widely on Facebook with a similar claim.
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Fact check:
The older woman in this viral picture is not Shaheen Bagh's Bilkis Bano as claimed on social media.
A reverse image search by Newsmeter led to the same picture uploaded by a Facebook page 'Sikh Relief- SOPW' on 12 October 2020.
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A reverse image search also revealed that the flag elder woman holding belongs to the 'Bharatiya Kisan Union (EktaUgrahan)' organization. On the organization's official Facebook page, female protests can be seen wearing a yellow scarf and participating in protests against farm bills.
The same image appeared on Facebook pages, 'Sant Baba Jarnail Singh Ji Khalsa Bhindrawale' and 'Mera Gaon, Mera Swabhimaan' on October 13. Based on the timeline of these Facebook pages, this picture is from the farmers' protest that happened in October. So it is evident that it is not from the ongoing farmers' protests in Delhi.
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This claim was previously fact-checked by Boomlive. Speaking to Boomlive, Bilkis Bano denied that the woman in the viral picture is her. She said she is yet to participate in the Farmers' protests. "I am sitting at home in ShaheenBagh. I am not the one in the photo. The photo of the woman that is being shared is not mine. I will be joining the protest tomorrow," Bano told Boomlive.
In conclusion, the woman in this picture is not Bilkis Bano. So the claim made in social media about the picture is FALSE.
