By Hazel Gandhi
An old video showing an anti-Modi protest in the United Kingdom where a banner reading 'Resign Modi' can be seen hanging on Westminster Bridge, is falsely being linked to the Income Tax surveys at the BBC's offices in India weeks after it aired a controversial documentary on the 2002 riots.
BOOM found that the video is from August 15, 2021, and the banner was dropped by a group called South Asia Solidarity Group.
The BBC released an explosive documentary, 'India: The Modi Question', which held PM Narendra Modi 'directly responsible' for the 2002 Gujarat riots on 17 and 24 January, 2023. Nearly a month later, the BBC's offices in Delhi and Mumbai were subjected to a survey by the Income Tax department that lasted for three days.
The video of the banner is being shared in this context and is being used to imply that there was an anti-Modi protest in the UK following the income tax survey at the BBC's offices in India.
It is being shared with the caption, "Slogans raised in London, Against incomtax raid on BBC office #BBCRaid #ResignModi #ModiHaiTohMumkinHai"
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
Click here to view.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the banner was first hung on August 15, 2021 by a Britain-based group called South Asia Solidarity Group. The date of the protest predates the BBC documentary's release, and has no links to the income tax survey that the broadcaster was subjected to.
A keyword search on Google led us to news articles that had reported the incident in 2021.
Click here to view.
We also found that the viral video was first uploaded on August 15, 2021.
The official Twitter handle of South Asia Solidarity Group had also shared videos and photos of the incident. A press release mentioned in detail the reasons for their protest. Some of them accused the Modi government of "incarceration of protestors and human rights defenders, calls for genocide of Muslims, rapes and murders of Dalit women and girls, corporate takeover of agriculture, Modi's Nuremberg laws," to name a few.
A similar video was also uploaded on their YouTube channel in 2021.
According to their website, SASG is an "anti-racist, anti-imperialist" organisation based in Britain.
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