Farmers Protest: 2018 Image Of Long March In Maharashtra Revived
BOOM spoke to the photographer who confirmed that the photo was taken in Mumbai during the first long march in 2018.
A two-year-old image of a gathering by farmers during a long march from Nashik to Mumbai has resurfaced in the backdrop of the ongoing farmers' protest in Delhi.
The viral posts link the image to the thousands of demonstrating farmers who are camping at the borders of Delhi as part of the agitation against the Central government to withdraw the contentious farm bills . There have been reports of more protesters joining the agitation at the Delhi borders with as many as 200 trucks carrying farmers that arrived at the protest site on December 8.
The image, which shows a huge gathering, has been captioned as, ''This winter night, 9 lakh farmers, 70,000 women are lying on the streets of Delhi today, the largest historical farmers movement in the world. We are enjoying under the blanket today! This fight is not only theirs, it is a fight to give food to 130 crore people.. Think, think, practice thinking. Jai Hind!''
Also read: Farmers' Protest: 2018 Pic Of Hrithik Roshan Shared As Recent
(Original text in Bangla: ''এই শীতের রাতে ৯ লাখ কৃষক,৭০ হাজার মহিলা আজ দিল্লীর রাস্তায় পড়ে আছে,পৃথিবীর সবচেয়ে বৃহত্তম ঐতিহাসিক কৃষক আন্দোলন। আমি আপনি তো আজ লেপের তলায় দিব্বি শুয়ে আছি।! এ লড়াই শুধু ওনাদের নয়,১৩০ কোটি মানুষের মুখে দুবেলা,দুমুঠো অন্ন তুলে দেওয়ার লড়াই...!! ভাবুন ভাবুন, ভাবা অভ্যাস করুন....!! Jai Hind'')
An archive of the post can be seen here.
The post is also doing the rounds on Twitter with the same narrative in Bangla.
Archive of such a tweet can be seen here.
Also read: 2018 Pic From Farmers' March In Maharashtra Viral As Recent
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search and found an opinion piece by journalist P Sainath on the People's Archive Of Rural India (PARI) website. The article, titled, "A long march of the dispossessed to Delhi" focused on a long march by farmers and their struggles in 2018. It was published on June 22, 2018.
We further searched the archives of PARI and found an article published on March 13, 2018 featuring the same image. The article revolves around the farmers who started a long march from Nashik on March 6 that year and assembled at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on March 12, in a bid to fulfill their demands. The march was organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, a collective of the Communist Party of India (CPI) which began with around 25,000 protesters in Nashik and rose over to 40,000 when they reached Mumbai.
Further, we found the image in the website's library which credited the image to Shrirang Swarge. BOOM reached out to Shrirang Swarge who said, ''The photo was taken on Somaiya Ground, Sion on the night before the farmers marched for the final leg of the protest rally to Azad Maidan.''
Images from the 2018 farmers march can be seen in the All India Kisan Sabha's Twitter account.
CPIM party's Kisan Sabha organised a second Kisan Long March a year later on February 20 from Nashik against the Fadnavis-led BJP governement for failure to meet the farmers' demands.
Also read: 2018 Photo Falsely Shared As Banner At Farmers' Protest
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