A set of images are being circulated to claim that the police mercilessly thrashed the youth of Uttar Pradesh, who is out on the streets to protest against unemployment.
However, the images in question are from 2018 and do not show the current situation. The images are related to the protest held two years back, regarding filling of posts of assistant teachers in primary schools of the state.
This comes in the backdrop of students and youths protesting across Uttar Pradesh regarding unemployment.
CLAIM
Shauryaveer Singh, national secretary of National Students' Union of India (NSUI), shared the images with a claim: “कल हरियाणा में RSS बीजेपी और खट्टर की पुलिस ने किसान को मारा आज उत्तर प्रदेश में युवाओं के द्वारा रोजगार माँगने पर ढोंगी कि पुलिस ने छात्र व छात्रा दोनो को बेरहमी से मारा”
(Translation: Yesterday, police of RSS-BJP and Khattar beat farmers in Haryana. Today, youth and students of Uttar Pradesh, who were protesting against unemployment, were beaten by police)
Several social media users shared the images of Facebook and Twitter with a similar narrative.
The Quint received a query on the claim being made about the images on its WhatsApp helpline.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We found that all the images are from a protest held in Lucknow in 2018. Let’s take a look at each of the images, one by one:
IMAGE 1
On conducting a Google reverse image search, we found a tweet shared by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in November 2018.
The description mentioned that the protest was regarding recruitment of 68,500 assistant teachers in Uttar Pradesh.
We found that the viral image carries the watermark of ‘Ashutosh Tripathi.’ Hence, we searched on his Facebook account and found that he had uploaded the same photo in 2018.
Speaking to The Quint, the photographer confirmed that the image is from the aforementioned protest in 2018.
Journalist Piyush Rai had also tweeted the image back in 2018, mentioning that the applicants were lathi charged by UP Police during a protest regarding filling of 68,500 posts of assistant teachers in primary schools.
IMAGE 2
The second image was shared by UttarPradesh.ORG News in November 2018, mentioning that the protesters were demanding “30 and 33 cut off.”
The tweet also mentioned that some students were injured during the lathi charge done during the protest.
The organisation had also uploaded a video on its YouTube channel in 2018 with the caption: ‘68,500 shikshak bharti protest in Lucknow.’
Photographer Ashutosh Tripathi had uploaded several pictures from the protest and we could find the same girl seen in an image clicked by him and in the viral image.
IMAGE 3
On conducting a Google reverse image search on the third image, we found that a Twitter user had shared it in 2018 with a caption that mentioned about the same protest.
ABOUT THE PROTEST IN 2018
A Hindustan Times article dated mentioned that 2 November 2018 mentioned that the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court had directed the CBI to conduct an investigation into the “alleged anomalies in recruitment of 68,500 assistant teachers in primary schools of the state.”
Further, news agency PTI had then reported that police used canes to disperse protesters “against two court rulings that quashed the selection of over 12,000 government teachers and ordered a CBI probe into the process to appoint 68,500 more.”
News channel Mirror Now had also carried the visuals in 2018, showing protesters outside the State Assembly in Lucknow.
While students and youth have been protesting regarding the issue of unemployment in Uttar Pradesh, these images, however, are old and from a 2018 protest regarding recruitment of assistant teachers.
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