Morphed Images With Anti-Modi Slogans Viral As PM Visits Tamil Nadu

Old, unrelated, and morphed anti-Modi photos purporting to be from Tamil Nadu are viral online amid Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state.

One photo shows a billboard reading "Modi No Entry", and another shows a railway station with the board, "Tamil Nadu Says, Go Back Modi, We Hate You." BOOM found that both these images are old and not related to Tamil Nadu.

PM Modi is currently in Tamil Nadu on a state visit, and following some engagements in Chennai, he was seen him visiting the Theppakkadu elephant camp and interacting with Bomman and Bellie, the couple on whom the recent Oscar-winning documentary 'The Elephant Whisperers' was based. Apart from this, he also inaugurated a new terminal at the Chennai airport and flagged off the new Vande Bharat Express running from Secunderabad to Tirupati. The anti-Modi images are going viral in the backdrop of this visit by Modi to the state.

The first image is being shared on Twitter with the caption, "Come on start the music… Tamil Nadu loudly says #GoBackModi"

Click here to view the post and here for an archive.

Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.

FACT-CHECK

BOOM found that the images are not related to PM Modi's visit to Tamil Nadu and are edited.

Image 1

A reverse image search on Google led us to a story by The News Minute published on February 9, 2019. The story carried this exact picture, except the 'Tamil Nadu' text on the top.

Click here to view.

According to The News Minute, the billboards appeared in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur and Vijayawada ahead of the PM's visit to the state. The report also mentioned that this was the first time the PM was visiting the state after the Telugu Desam Party cut ties with the BJP.

A similar report by the Economic Times published on February 10 can be seen here.

Image 2

A reverse image search of this photo on Google led us to an article by BuzzFeed India published on March 15, 2016, that carried the same photo, except the text on the sign board read 'Kanniyakumari'. The story detailed the experience of photographer Ed Hanley, who undertook the long and arduous 85-hour train journey Dibrugarh, Assam to Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, covering a distance of 4,273 kms. Hanley had documented his journey in the form of photos and converted it into a photo essay that went viral in India.

Click here to view.

Similar reports by The Times of India and Business Insider can be seen here and here.

Hanley has also compiled several clips from this journey in a video titled 'Kanyakumari Express Timelapse', which he shared on YouTube.

The visual at the 1:42 mark shows Kanyakumari Railway Station, and the sign board is an exact match to our viral photo.

Here is a comparison of the two.