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  • 2019-04-16 (xsd:date)
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  • No, this photo does not show a rally for India’s ruling party (en)
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  • A photo of a road filled with people dressed in white, orange and yellow has been shared hundreds of times in multiple online posts that claim it shows a rally in eastern India in support of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The claim is false; the photo actually shows a Buddhist ceremony in Thailand in 2015. The posts, for example this one published to Facebook April 9, 2019, and shared more than 1,500 times since, claim that the photo was taken at a rally for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling BJP. Modi is seeking re-election in national polls which began on April 11 and run until May 19. Here is an AFP report about India’s election. The post’s Hindi-language caption says, translated to English: This is the scene of a BJP rally in Bengal. This is Cooch Behar rally. Today Mamata and Bengal would've lost their sleep. Cooch Behar is a district in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal; here is its local government website. Mamata refers to the chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee, who belongs to the All India Trinamool Congress party. Here is her official Twitter page. Below is a screenshot of the false post: Screenshot of misleading post The same photo has also been shared elsewhere with a similar claim, for example here on Twitter and here on Instagram with the caption Modi Tsunami in Mangalore #NamoAgain #ModiOnceMore. It was also shared on Facebook here on June 15, 2018, alongside a Hindi-language caption that references Bengal and Hinduism. It says, translated to English: The most difficult task in the world is to write ‘Jai Shree Ram’ with Bengali Hindus and share. Let’s see how many Hindus can do this hard work. The phrase Jai Shree Ram means Victory to Lord Ram, a Hindu god. A reverse image search on Google found that the photo does not show a rally in India, but was taken in Thailand in 2015 during a Buddhist ceremony in the central city of Samut Sakhon, where more than 10,000 monks gathered to receive alms. The photo appeared in this report on the Thai online Buddhist broadcaster DMC TV, headlined: Ten thousand monks receive alms at Samut Sakhon. Below is a screenshot of the top of the report, which contains dozens of images of the event: Screenshot of DMC TV report The first line of the English-language report says: On October 25, 2015 the club of Buddhist tradition inheritance of Samut Sakhon and government-private sectors of Samut Sakhon organized the 2nd Alms-Offering ceremony to 10,000 Buddhist monks at Ekkachai Rd. The image below compares screenshots of the false Facebook post (L) and the photo as it appears on the DMC TV website (R): Screenshot of false Facebook post (L) compared with photo on DMC TV website (R) Ekkachai Road, also spelled Ekachai Road, can be found here on Google Maps in the centre of Samut Sakhon city. There are multiple similarities between the photo in the false Facebook post and images of that location on Google Street View. These include a distinctive building painted yellow and white, the shape of the telegraph poles on the left of the road, and the surrounding landscape. Some of these have been circled in red in the comparison image below: Image comparing screenshots of false Facebook post (L) and Google Street View (R) with similar elements circled in red (en)
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