Old images of anti-Modi hoarding passed off as recent images from Rajasthan

Hyderabad: A hoarding that reads “Modi No Entry” and graffiti on the road that reads “Go Back Modi” has gone viral on social media. Those sharing the images claim people are showing anger against Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his visit to Rajasthan on 31 May.

(Click here and here to view the posts.)

On 31 May, PM Modi launched BJP’s “Maha Jansampark” campaign during a public meeting in Ajmer, Rajasthan. The campaign is scheduled to be held from 31 May to 30 June and aims to reach out to people across the country on the completion of 9 years at the Centre through extensive public programmes.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that both images date back to 2019 and 2020 and are from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal respectively.

On performing a reverse image search of the hoarding, we found it tweeted by a Twitter user on 10 February 2019. In the tweet, the user claimed that the hoarding was put up in Andhra Pradesh.

On 9 February 2019, The News Minute carried an image of the same hoarding in a report titled “Ahead of PM’s Andhra visit, ‘Modi No Entry’ billboards appear in multiple places.” It said huge hoardings were erected in places around Guntur and Vijayawada against PM Modi ahead of his visit to Andhra Pradesh after the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) severed ties with the BJP after fallout over the Special Category Status.

We also found that Times Now and National Herald used images of the hoarding in their 2019 articles reporting the same.

On performing a reverse image search of the graffiti, we found it tweeted by journalist Mayukh Ranjan Ghosh on 11 January 2020. He said that the image is from Kolkata’s Esplanade area.

Next, we found the image on the photo stock website Alamy. The description reads, “A child waves an Indian flag while he stands in the middle of a painted slogan against the arrival of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata on January 11, 2020.”

Scroll and The Times of India also used the photo of the anti-Modi graffiti taken from different angles in their news reports from January 2020.

From this, we conclude that the viral anti-Modi hoarding and graffiti are not from Rajasthan and neither are they recent. Hence, the claim is false.