Photo of 2021 Indian farmers protests falsely linked to 2023 wrestlers rallies
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 7, 2023 at 10:57
- 3 min read
- By Anuradha PRASAD, AFP India
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The photo was shared here on Twitter on May 28, 2023 and has been retweeted more than 2,400 times.
"She is @SakshiMalik the first Olympic medal winner in the country in women's wrestling!" the Hindi-language tweet reads. "Is the country's conscience alive or dead or has it been sold."
It shows a policeman stepping on a person's head with his boot.
The picture circulated after clashes broke out on May 28 between the police and Indian wrestlers, who have protested to demand the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over charges of alleged sexual harassment and intimidation (archived here and here).
AFP reported the wrestlers tried to march towards India's new parliament building on the day as it was being inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they were halted by police (archived link).
"Among those detained by police and hauled away into buses were Olympic bronze medallists, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia," the report said.
The viral image was also shared here and here on Facebook; and here and here on Twitter.
But the claim is false. The image in fact dates back to 2021 when Indian farmers staged a series of protests that lasted over a year against three contentious farm laws introduced by Modi's government.
Image from farmers’ protests
A reverse search on Google found the image in a report published on the English news website Deccan Herald on January 29, 2021 with a timeline of the farmers protests on the day (archived link).
The picture was posted with a caption that reads: "Police pin down a farmer, who allegedly attacked Police SHO (Alipur) Pradeep Paliwal, during clashes between people claiming to be local villagers and farmers at the Singhu Border" and a credit to the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.
Modi's government claimed the laws would boost rural incomes and reform an inefficient agricultural sector. But farmers said the changes would allow Indian conglomerates to take over the farming industry, long protected by state-run bodies that guarantee minimum prices. The laws were repealed in November 2021 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared in the misleading posts (left) and the image published by Deccan Herald (right):
Content warning
The image can also be found in PTI's photo archives. Below is a screengrab of the picture as seen on the agency's archive, with the photo in the misleading posts highlighted by AFP:
The picture was published with a caption that also said it was taken during clashes between police and protesting farmers on January 29, 2021.
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