Fact Check: Viral image is not recent Kolkata coffee house incident, but from 2016
Amid the political brawl between the BJP supporters and the activists of the 'No Vote to BJP' campaign at Kolkata's....
By Newsmeter Network Published on 22 March 2021 11:39 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Amid the political brawl between the BJP supporters and the activists of the 'No Vote to BJP' campaign at Kolkata's Coffee House, images from 2016 of two BJP groups fighting in West Bengal is being falsely shared as the coffee house incident.
The caption under this image upon translation reads, "Ruckus by saffron in iconic coffee house. They are enemies of Bangla and Bengalis. If you vote them they will leave Bengal by destroying it (sic)."
Fact Check:
We performed a reverse image search and found a 2016 report by FirstPost that carried the same viral images. The caption read, "BJP workers clash with each other at a party workers' convention for actress and BJP candidate from Howrah North Assembly constituency Rupa Ganguly in Howrah. (PTI)".
The images were from 4 April, 2016, when two groups of the BJP workers clashed in North Howrah, West Bengal. The clash occurred at a local party meeting that included BJP leader Roopa Ganguly and took place before the first phase of polling during the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections.
The same was also reported in The Times of India in, 2016. "About 750 BJP workers in Howrah (North), where Roopa is the party's candidate, and 176 party booth presidents have resigned to pile pressure on the senior leadership to expel the troublemakers," reads the article.
NewsMeter also found an India TV news report that shows the footage of the clash. The paint on the walls is the same as the one in the viral images.
Evidently, these viral pictures are not related to the clash at the Kolkata Coffee House but are from 2016.
