Fact check: Old photo wrongly associated with opposition rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi

New Delhi:

As the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held in multiple phases from April 19 to June 1, 2024, leaders of India’s opposition groups organized a ‘Loktantra Bachao’ rally at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi on March 31, 2024 . Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case related to Delhi’s liquor policy.

What are your claims?

Against this backdrop, a number of aerial images have emerged purportedly depicting large crowds rallying in support of Arvind Kejriwal at the ‘Loktantra Bachao Rally’ organized by opposition groups in Delhi.

One of the images, depicting a large group of people dressed in yellow, has been circulated as evidence of Kejriwal’s support base. The accompanying Hindi subtitles, translated, asserted: “The streets of Delhi were crowded with Kejriwal supporters” and included the hashtag #IndiaWithKejriwal.

As of this writing, one post containing the viral image has accumulated more than 424,000 views.Archived versions of this and other similar articles can be found here, hereand here.

Another aerial image depicting a sizeable crowd has also attracted widespread attention and is said to be a snapshot of a recent rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan. The image was captioned “Scenes from today’s Ramlila Maidan Alliance rally. Modi #INDIAAlliance.”

As of this writing, a post sharing the viral image has received 407,000 views.Can view archived and similar versions of posts hereand here.

However, the first photograph dates back to an incident in Africa. Likewise, another image purported to be from the recent Delhi rally is an old photo of West Bengal in 2019.

What are the facts?

figure 1

A reverse image search on the first image revealed that it came from the official account Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, published on January 23, 2022. The post’s caption suggests that the image depicts Africa’s largest running race, the Ethiopian Run, an annual road running event in Ethiopia.

#GreatEthiopianRun
The largest running event in the country #Africa
Be sure to attend next time and have fun! pic.twitter.com/UsjRkshGpL

— #Ethiopia 🇪🇹 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (@mfaethiopia) January 23, 2022

Additionally, we discovered a similar image uploaded on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Achievement Fund website. The accompanying description says, “Haile Gebreselassie launches the Great Ethiopian Run under the slogan ‘We can end poverty by 2015.'” This photo, taken from different angles, shows A sign that says “Abyssinian Springs”.

Even in May 2022, this exact image resurfaced, along with other unrelated images, incorrectly representing the gathering of Chennai Super Kings fans for the 2023 IPL final. In a fact-check, Logically Facts found that images from tournaments held in Spain, Africa and Thailand in different years were misrepresented as visuals of CSK fans at the IPL final.

figure 2

A reverse image search led us to a 2019 news article from the Communist Party of India’s English-language weekly newspaper, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which featured the viral image. The article reported that thousands of Left party workers attended a rally led by the Left Front at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata.

Furthermore, a post on X by the West Bengal unit of the CPI(M) on June 10, 2020, shared the same image with the title “Aerial view of last year’s Kolkata brigade rally”, confirming that it originated from the 2019 conference.

“You can cut off all the flowers, but you can’t stop spring from coming.”

An aerial view of last year’s Burga Rally #kolkata#LalSalaamComradepic.twitter.com/EmuvpqaiXI

— CPI(M) West Bengal (@CPIM_WESTBENGAL) June 10, 2020

Kolkata Tourism Rally 2019

Reports published by websites such as People’s Express, People’s Democracy and Social News in February 2019 revealed that thousands of Left Party workers participated in a rally held at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on February 3, 2019. These reports emphasized that the rally was against the BJP-led central government and the TMC-led state government.

According to reports, at the rally held for India’s 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a resolution was passed calling for the expulsion of the BJP and TMC governments from the state.

judgment

Old and unrelated images of the Africa Ethiopia Run 2022 and the rally held at the Kolkata Tourist Ground on February 3, 2019 have been circulated with false claims that they depict scenes from the ‘Loktantra Bachao’ rally 2024, The rally was allegedly targeting Kejriwal supporters in Delhi. Therefore, we have flagged this claim as false.

This story was originally Published by Logical Factsand was re-released by NDTV as part of Shakti Collective.