No, video showing PM Narendra Modi’s effigy is not from ongoing farmers’ protest in India

By: Mohammad Salman
February 28 2024

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Screenshot of a viral post sharing the video on X.(Source: X/ Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the claim?

A video of an effigy of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tied to a tractor has been going viral on social media with the claim that it is from the ongoing farmer protests. The effigy has the text “agent of RSS” written on it, and a pair of slippers hangs around the dummy’s neck. After showing the effigy, the footage also pans to a poster saying, “No farmers, no food.” A voiceover of two men talking also accompanies the video. Archived versions of posts sharing the video can be found here, here, and here.

Screenshots of the viral posts. (Source: X/ Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this video is not from the ongoing farmers' protest in India. The video was shot in Oregon, United States of America. 

How did we verify this?

We spotted a signboard for a food outlet named  ‘Sizzling Tandoori Hut’ in the video beside the tractor to which the effigy is tied. Taking a hint from this, we looked for the outlet and found that it is located in Oregon in the U.S. We also found pictures of the food outlet on Instagram and the travel website Trip Advisor which match the structure seen in the viral clip. 

Screenshot of an Instagram post indicating that the food outlet
seen in the viral clip is located in the U.S. (Source: Instagram/ Screenshot)

We also geolocated the restaurant on Google Maps and found that it was located on Melinda Lane in Oregon. In the image of the outlet on Google Maps, we could also spot a blue tractor similar to that seen in the viral video.  

Google Maps shows that ‘Sizzling Tandoori Hut’ is in Orgeon, U.SA. (Source: Google Maps/ Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

This establishes that the video was captured in the U.S, and not in India.

Where is the voiceover from?

In the voiceover heard in the video, someone says, “Why are we going to Delhi in extreme cold? Modi took our livelihood, he will also take away our land, we will punch him.” We tried to find the source of this audio and came across many videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube in December 2020. In the videos, we heard the same conversation as the voiceover from the viral clip. 

We found the original video from which the audio is extracted — the original video shows a conversation between an NDTV reporter and an old man. The NDTV reporter asks the old man sitting in a tractor why he was marching toward Delhi in the extreme cold, and in response to his question, the man can be heard saying, “Why are we going to Delhi in extreme cold? Modi took our livelihood, he will also take away our land, we will punch him.” This conversation took place during the farmers' protest of 2020-2021. The farmers relaunched their protest in mid-February and are camping outside the border of the national capital once again.

We also reached out to the reporter in the NDTV video, who we identified as Mohammad Ghazali. Speaking to Logically Facts, he said, “Yes, I clearly remember that this video was shot on 26-27 November 2020. That day, farmers from Punjab were marching toward Delhi, and I clearly remember this conversation.”

Ghazali had reported extensivlely on the 2020-2021 farmers’ protests, and several videos of his reportage are available online. He had also shared the conversation in question on his X account on November 26, 2020. It is clear that a portion of this interview’s audio has been added to the viral video of PM Modi's effigy shot in Oregon. 

The verdict

An old video from Oregon, U.S., has been shared with the claim that an effigy of Indian PM Narendra Modi was dragged by a tractor during the ongoing farmers’ protest outside the Delhi borders where farmers are camping to demand an increase in crop price. Therefore, we mark this claim as false.

(Translated by Azra Ali)