A video showing protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government is going viral across social media. The video is being shared with the claim that it shows a protest in Karnataka against PM Modi during his recent visit to the state.
PM Modi visited poll-bound Karnataka this month to attend programmes in Mandya and Hubballi-Dharwad on Sunday. The Prime Minister laid the foundation stones of projects worth around Rs 16,000 crores. His visit comes as a part of voter outreach ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections in the next few months.
Claim:
The video shows a person leading chants against the Modi government. The large mob can be heard chanting, “Modi government is the thief’s government.”
Twitter user @idsuban7 shared the post with the caption, “Hey Raam..! It seems that Hindus have really woken up now. #KarnatakaElection2023 #40PercentSarkara”
Fact Check:
We conducted a reverse image search on the viral video and came across this tweet by Twitter user Gaurav Sharma published on February 17, 2021. The tweet contained a longer version of the viral video and is captioned, “Now the eyes of the blind devotees are open when the whole country has been looted @LambaAlka”.
At the 0.21 mark in the video, the portraits of the late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray and current leaders Uddhav Thackeray, and Aaditya Thackeray can be seen. Taking a cue from this we conducted a keyword search in Marathi of protests that occurred in February 2021.
We came across a report by Sakal, a Marathi news outlet, which contained images of the protest. The report titled, ‘Shiv Sena bullock cart march against petrol, diesel, gas price hike in Hingoli’ was published on February 5, 2023.
As per the Sakal report, the visuals were captured when Shiv Sena, under the leadership of MLA Santosh Bangar, took out a bullock cart march on February 5, 2021, with the main demand that the central government reduce the prices of petrol, diesel and gas.
The protest march began at the Shiv Sena Hingoli district office and continued via the Indira Gandhi Chowk in Hingoli. Thousands of Shiv Sainiks, along with hundreds of bullock carts, participated in this march carrying flags and placards with various slogans, as per the Sakal report.
We also came across a video published by Lokpradhan News on February 5, 2021, titled, ‘Shiv Sena’s grand bullock cart march to protest petrol price hike in Hingoli’. In this video, slogans can be clearly heard being raised against the fuel price hike.
In the video, the poster showing the profiles of Shiv Sena can be seen clearly. The poster exclaims that a ‘massive protest is organised against the price hike in petrol, diesel and gas. The date of February 5, 2021, can also be seen on the poster.
We then compared the visuals from the video and the viral video and found several similarities.
In February 2021, fuel prices across India reached record highs, led by a rise in the price of crude oil globally and a surge in excise duty and VAT by the Centre. In Rajasthan and Maharashtra, the price of petrol went beyond the Rs 100 mark in the month of February 2021 sparking off protests by parties in the Opposition.
Conclusion:
We found that the viral video is shared with a false claim alleging that it was shot during PM Modi’s visit to Karnataka ahead of the state Assembly polls. The viral video shows an incident from February 2021 where the Shiv Sena launched protests over the record price hike of petrol and diesel. The video is not connected to the upcoming Karnataka state elections.
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Fact Check
2023-03-29 09:12:16.0
Does This Video Show Protests Against PM Modi’s Recent Visit To Karnataka? No, Viral Video Is Shared With False Claim
