Old, edited visuals shared as protests against PM Narendra Modi's recent visit to Kanyakumari

By: Ishita Goel
May 31 2024

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A screenshot of a social media post falsely claiming to show visuals from protests against Modi's recent visit to Kanyakumari. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the claim?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently in Kanyakumari, a temple town in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where he is reportedly mediating for 45 hours after months of campaigning for the ongoing Indian general elections. Amid his visit, which commenced on May 30, a set of three visuals, with the slogan "Go Back Modi" visible prominently in each, is going viral on social media, with the claim that they show how people in Tamil Nadu are reacting to the PM's visit. 

In the past few years, Modi's visits to Tamil Nadu have been controversial, with protests often breaking out in the state with the protestors using the slogan "Go Back Modi". 

The first image in these collages shows a railway station signboard carrying the name of the place, Kanyakumari, in English and Tamil, while in between the words read "Go Back Modi." The second is a video of a man releasing black balloons with the same anti-Modi phrase written on it. In the video, he says in Tamil, "Like this one, lakh balloons are ready to fly in the air and will be released tomorrow." The third is a video montage created using several photos of the same posters saying "Go Back Modi.". 

These visuals are viral social media with the caption, "That's how the people of #TamilNadu are responding to the 2 days visit of PM Modi to Kanyakumari, who is suppose to meditate at #RockMemorial, a monument built in tribute to #SwamiVivekananda, in #Kanyakumari (sic)." Another user also shared the photo of the railway station signboard with the hashtag "Go Back Modi". Archived versions of these posts can be seen here, here and here.

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

Modi will be in Kanyakumari till June 1, the day the last phase of elections will be held. 

What are the facts?

We found that while the first image is old and edited, the second video dates back to 2023. However, the third video does show recent events in Tamil Nadu.

The railway station signboard

Through a reverse image search, we traced the original image back to a photo essay on the photography news site PetaPixel. The website had published the image on March 9, 2016. The article was about the 'longest train' in India, the Dibrugarh-Kanyakumari Vivek Express (train number 15906), which, according to the essay, travels 4,273km from the north-eastern corner of Assam to the southernmost tip of mainland India, Kanyakumari. The photo essay featured the original version of the image with the caption "End of the line." This image shows the signboard displaying the name of the place Kanyakumari in Tamil, Hindi, and English. By comparing the images, we can see that the viral image has been edited; the second line, which originally read Kanyakumari in Hindi, has been replaced to say "Go Back Modi." 

Other details in the Petapixel photo, such as the passengers in the background, the bench, and the electrical line, match the visuals in the viral image, establishing the latter was manipulated to include the anti-Modi slogan.

Comparison of the viral image with the PetaPixel photo. (Source: X/PetaPixel/Modified by Logically Facts)

Video of man with black balloons

Through reverse image search, we found that an X user (archived here) had posted the same video on April 9, 2023, with a caption in Tamil that translated to "Go Back Modi."

Further research led us to an article published by The News Minute on April 8, 2023, headlined "Modi visit: Police detain Congress leader, seize black balloons in Chennai." The article carried a screenshot of the man from the viral video, confirming that the incident dates back to April 2023. The report said that MP Ranjan Kumar, chairman of Tamil Nadu Congress's Scheduled Castes wing, had stocked up 500 such black balloons in his house and nearly 2,000 with the Congress cadre in Sathyamoorthy Bhavan. He had reportedly planned to release them to oppose Modi's visit to the city.

The News Minute report featuring the same man. (Source: Screenshot/The News Minute)

The Hindu also reported on the incident, adding that Kumar was detained by the police and noted that multiple protests were held by Congress in the state against Modi.

Modi visited Chennai in Tamil Nadu on April 8, 2023, to flag off the Vande Bharat Express train between Chennai and Coimbatore, to inaugurate a new terminal building at the Chennai Airport, and to inaugurate several other infrastructure works.

Video of anti-Modi banners put up in different places

While searching for recent reports about "Go Back Modi" posters in Tamil Nadu, we found several news stories published on May 30 carrying the same images of the same poster used in the video montage.

ETV Bharat reported that such "Go Back Modi" posters have created a stir, writing that a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) lawyer, Hemanth Annadurai, condemned Modi's visit to Tamil Nadu by making these posters and pasting them all over the main areas of Chennai like Tiruvallikeni, Pookadai and Parimuna.

Seithipunal, a Tamil-language news media, also reported that the posters had been created by a lawyer from DMK and pasted at places "like Chennai High Court Complex, Central Railway Station, GH, Anna Road, Gemini Overpass, MLA Hostel, Chennai Press Club, Anna Institute, Anbakam Road." 

The posters also carry a photo of Hemanth Annadurai. He himself had shared several images of the posters as seen in a post on his X account on May 30 (archived here). 

Image posted by Hemanth Annadurai. (Source: Screenshot/X)

The verdict

Some old and edited visuals are being shared to claim that they show recent protests against PM Modi in Tamil Nadu amid his visit to Kanyakumari. Therefore, we have marked the posts as misleading.