No, ITBP Didn’t Appeal for Boycott of Chinese Goods on Diwali

The original hoarding was set up by the workers of Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Chittorgarh in 2017.

A photograph of a hoarding appealing for the boycott of Chinese goods has gone viral on social media with a claim that this appeal was issued by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP).

However, we found that the image was altered to create a false narrative. The hoarding was originally set up by Swadeshi Jagran Manch’s Chittorgarh unit in 2017.

CLAIM

The image was shared with a caption that reads, “Emotional hoarding put by Indo Tibet Border Police Force @ITPB_official requesting citizens to #BoycottChineseProducts @AmitShah”.

Other shared the tweet with the slogan that’s mentioned on the hoarding.

This comes while India and China have been locked in a bitter standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since early May.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

Upon conducting a reverse image search, we found similar photos from 2017. However, the attribution to ITBP was missing in this photo. According to this photo, the hoarding was put up by Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Chittorgarh.

We reached out to Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), Chittorgarh and spoke to Satish Kumar Acharya, who handles the printing and publication work for SJM’s Rajasthan division. He confirmed to The Quint that the hoarding was set up the by their Chittorgarh branch.

The organisation has also printed pamphlets and shared posts on social media with similar slogans calling for a boycott of Chinese goods. One such post was shared with us.

We also reached out to ITBP and their Public Relations Officer, Vivek Pandey, told The Quint that the ITBP has not put up any such hoarding. He told us that the photograph shared has been photoshopped and ITBP’s name has been added.

A side-by-side view of the image shows how the original photo was altered.

So, an old image was revived and morphed to make a false claim that ITBP made appeals for boycott of Chinese good during Diwali.

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