Is this a recent video of a protest against PM Modi during his US visit? Know the Truth

In the last few days, PM Modi’s US visit has been in the headlines. He met President Joe Biden and addressed the US Congress. Many posts and videos related to Modi’s US visit are going viral on social media. 

Recently, we came across a video where a crowd was seen protesting against PM Modi on the streets. They were spotted with Modi’s effigy with a garland of shoes and slogan ‘Face of Indian Terrorism’ written on it. Users are claiming that this video is an incident during PM Modi’s recent US visit. 

However, Fact Crescendo found that although the video of the incident is from the US but it is old and not an incident during Modi’s recent US tour.

Facebook | Archive

This video became viral after Gujarat INC Chairman Hitendra Pithadiya tweeted it on 24 June. Below you can see the tweet. 

Archive

Fact Check- 

A Google Reverse Image Search of a keyframe of the viral video led us to a tweet by a user in 2019. This tweet mocked at PM Modi saying’ “He is gaining a lot of fame in a foreign land.”

The same video was also posted on Facebook and tweeted by another user in 2019 and 2021 respectively.

Thus, it is clear that this is not a recent video but an old one. 

Upon searching about the incident of the anti-Modi protest in the US in 2019, we came across a report published on a website on 20 September 2019. According to the report, Kashmiris in the diaspora, South Asian allies, faith leaders, and solidarity groups gathered outside United Nations Headquarters on the day PM Modi addressed the 74^th session of the UN General Assembly. 

This protest was organized against Narendra Modi and the right-wing Hindu nationalist government. The demand of the protest was to end the occupation of Kashmir and for the right to Kashmiri self-determination. This protest was held at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on East 47^th Street in New York.

Further, we saw in the video that the protest was held at E 47 Street. So taking the clue from the above information, we search for Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on 47 Street in New York on Google Maps. 

Below you can see the same building that was under construction in 2019 when the protest was held and the image from Google Maps from 2022 after the construction was over.

Conclusion: 

Fact Crescendo found that the viral video is not a recent one. Although the video of the protest was during Modi’s visit to the US but it was from 2019. An old video of the anti-Modi protest from the US was shared without proper context.