Protests in London over IT Raid on BBC Offices?

This is an old video from 2021 captured in London on the occasion of Independence Day .The video has nothing to do with the IT raids at the BBC offices.

The Income Tax Department conducted an investigation at the offices of BBC in Delhi and Mumbai in India. Opposition parties criticized the probe as retaliation for the BBC’s release of a documentary on PM Modi and Gujarat riots.  In this context, many people are sharing a video claiming that there was a protest in London demanding that Prime Minister Modi should resign for investigating the BBC office.

A 28-second video purportedly showing the ‘Resign Modi’ banner is doing rounds on the internet with the claim that the protest against Modi is being held in London as a result of IncomeTax raids in BBC office.

The caption of the video states “Slogans raised in London, Against incomtax raid on BBC office #BBCRaid #ResignModi #ModiHaiTohMumkinHai”

Archive Link

Fact Check- 

By performing a reverse image search on Google with the keyframes of the viral video, we were directed to a Facebook post by Cloud 7 TV Channel, which included the viral video and was posted on August 15, 2021.

The description reads “Resign Modi”: Independence Day banner dropped from London’s Westminster BridgeOn the occasion of Indian Independence Day Diaspora group protests in London, seeks PM Modi’s resignation.South Asia Solidarity alleged that under the current government, India had normalised violence against religious minorities and the Dalits.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has imprisoned a large number of dissenters amidst a global pandemic, South Asia Solidarity, an Indian diaspora organisation said on August 15, launching a protest on the Westminster bridge in London demanding Mr. Modi’s resignation.

Based on this, we conducted a Google search using some key words and discovered media reports about the protest on August 15, 2021. According to the report “The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has imprisoned a large number of dissenters amidst a global pandemic, South Asia Solidarity, an Indian diaspora organisation said on August 15, launching a protest on the Westminster bridge in London demanding Mr. Modi’s resignation. The group spearheading the event alleged that under the current government, India had normalised violence against religious minorities and the Dalits”. 

In further search we found The South Asia Solidarity Group Youtube channel’s video from 15 August, 2021, has matching visuals to the viral video. It is mentioned in the description part that the members of the diaspora and friends of India in the UK dropped a huge banner reading ‘Resign Modi’ from London’s iconic Westminister bridge. Calls for the genocide of Muslims, rapes and murders of Dalit women, and mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic are listed among the ten reasons listed for seeking PM Modi’s resignation.

The Income Tax audit took place in February 2023 at the BBC offices in India. The viral video, on the other hand, was shot in August 2021. As a result, the report that there was a protest in London demanding Prime Minister Modi’s resignation in response to the Income Tax Department investigation at the BBC office is confirmed to be false.

Similarly, earlier we have debunked a claim that 

Britons Protesting In Front Of The BBC Against The Modi Documentary

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo discovered that the claim made in the viral video to be False.  The viral video of protest with the ‘Resign Modi’ banner is an old video from 2021 captured in London on the occasion of Independence Day for various other reasons. Not the outcome of Income Tax raids at the BBC offices in India.