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| - Fact Check: First Bihar, now Chennai, 2020 'Go Back Modi' graffiti from Kolkata continues to play musical chairs
A photo of a "Go Back Modi" graffiti went viral falsely claiming that Chennai residents protested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the city.
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India Today Fact Check
This photo is neither new nor from Chennai. In January 2020, anti-CAA protesters in Kolkata painted graffiti to express their opposition to the PM’s visit there.
Amid the Prime Minister’s Chennai trip on May 26, a photo of a “Go Back Modi” graffiti went viral with the claim that this was how people in the city protested Narendra Modi’s visit.
Several people on Twitter and Facebook shared the photo with hashtags like #GoBackModi and #GoBackFascistModi.
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that this photo was neither new nor from Chennai. In January 2020, anti-CAA protesters in Kolkata painted this graffiti to express their opposition to the PM’s visit there.
The viral posts are archived here and here.
AFWA Probe
Our first clue was that the people in the photo could be seen wearing winter wear, which is unlikely to happen in Chennai in May.
A reverse image search led us to an Ei Somoy news report from January 12, 2020. The Bengali news portal reported that the location of the graffiti was near Metro Channel. A brown structure visible in the photo bearing the words, “METRO CHANNEL CONTROL POST, HARE STREET POLICE STATION,” could be seen in the viral image.
When we searched Google Maps for “Metro Channel Control Post, Hare Street Police Station”, we found stark similarities between the photos we found and the viral shot.
A Times of India report from the same time featured a different photo of what appeared to be the same “Go Back Modi” graffiti in Kolkata. Per the report, in January 2020, anti-CAA protesters expressed opposition to PM Modi’s visit to the city through graffiti.
“The idea was simple. We wanted to shout out a message that was loud and clear — any leader or organisation that tries to divide people on the basis of religion is not welcome in this state or city,” a protestor present at Metro Channel in Esplanade, Kolkata, told ToI at the time.
India Today reported at the time that hundreds participated in the protest at the Kolkata airport against PM Modi’s visit. Protests were also staged in other parts of West Bengal.
This was not the first time this photo went viral with a misleading claim. In fact, AFWA has previously debunked false claims about this photo being from Bihar.
Thus, we concluded that a 2020 photo from Kolkata was repurposed as an anti-Modi graffiti in Chennai amid the PM’s recent visit to the city.
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