Fake BBC Graphic Claims Brigade Rally Was Largest Peaceful Gathering

A fake graphic featuring a 'BBC News Breaking' logo falsely claims that the recently held rally in Kolkata's Brigade parade grounds has been termed the largest peaceful political gathering by the British news organisation. The graphic has an image from one of the Brigade rallies in the background and a text on top which reads 'Kolkata Brigade 2021: World's largest Peaceful Political Gathering" - BBC NEWS '.

BOOM reached out to the BBC who confirmed that they have not published any such graphic.

The graphic is viral on Facebook with netizens applauding the Brigade rally held on February 28; The Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, known for its historical rallies by the Left Front, witnessed an alliance between the Left Front, Congress and the Indian Secular Front to battle the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly elections of West Bengal starting March 27.

Several netizens have given a thumbs up to the alliance and have also stated how the large gathering has been a peaceful one, based on the fake BBC graphic.

The image was also sent to BOOM's helpline number for verification.

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Fact Check

BOOM was able to ascertain that the graphic is fake and BBC has not issued any such statement in favour of the political gathering.

We looked up with relevant keywords but could not find any news reports based on the narrative shared on the fake graphic. Further, we reached out to Tess Colley, publicist of the British Broadcasting Corporating, who confirmed, "BBC has not published any such story".

Additionally, we also found that the graphic has been riddled with spelling error. Gathering has been misspelt as 'Geathering' in the graphic.

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BOOM however could not independently verify the footfall at the rally of the alliance. According to a report on The Wire, the alliance's meeting had a thinner crowd as compared to the rally held in 2019. The wire also spoke to a policeman on duty at the rally, and learnt that the estimated crowd was somewhere between two lakh and 2.5 lakh people. However, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury claimed more than 10 lakh people assembled at the Brigade ground on Sunday afternoon.

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Fake BBC Graphic Claims Brigade Rally Was Largest Peaceful Gathering

BOOM reached out to the BBC publicist Tess Colley who confirmed that there has been no such graphic published by the news organisation.

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