Old hoarding in India shared as poster against Narendra Modi in the U.S.

Context

A picture of a hoarding has gone viral on social media with the claim that it was put in the United States against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his visit in June 2023. The hoarding shows characters from the Netflix show Money Heist. 

One such Twitter post had the image with a caption, “Posters in USA, the loud and clear message from money heist Mr. Modi we only rob a bank you rob the whole nation,” and also had the hashtag “#ModiNotWelcome.” At the time of writing this story, the post gathered more than 28,000 views and over 300 likes. However, the viral image of hoarding is old and unrelated to Modi’s visit to the U.S.

In Fact

Logically Facts found an article by Telangana Today published on July 1, 2022, with the same image of the hoarding, and that it was put up in Hyderabad ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national executive meeting that was scheduled to be held in the city in early July that year.

The image being shared is a cropped version of the picture published in Telangana Today. 

On July 1, 2022, the social media convenor of the ruling Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti (BRS) Satish Reddy also shared the original image of the hoarding on Twitter with the caption, “What creativity!.”

A source within the BRS confirmed to Logically Facts that the hoarding was put up by the BRS (then known as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi), ahead of the BJP national executive meet in July 2022. 

Additionally, in the original photo we can see a store named 'Sri Ganapathi Glass and Woods' behind the hoarding, and the name of the store is also written in Telugu. This indicates that the picture is not from the U.S. but from Hyderabad.

Modi landed in New York city on Wednesday leading international Yoga Day celebrations at the United Nations headquarters. The Indian prime minister will be given a ceremonial welcome at the White House on Thursday before he holds direct talks with President Joe Biden.

The Verdict

The image of the hoarding against Modi is an old one from Hyderabad. A source from the BRS party confirmed that it was put up by their party in Hyderabad in 2022. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.