A video that shows an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi tied to a tractor is being shared on social media, with users linking it to the ongoing farmers' protests around Delhi.
What can be heard in the video?: A person in the background can be heard asking, "Why are you going in this cold weather." To this, a different individual replies in Punjabi that loosely translates to, "What happened? He has taken away our bread, he will take our land, we will go and punch Modi."
You can view an archive of the post here.
(Source: X/(formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)
The post had garnered over 2 lakh views on the platform. (More archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)
Are these claims true?: No, the video is actually from the United States and not from India.
The audio has been altered to make the misleading claim. We could trace the audio back to an interview taken by NDTV in November 2020.
What led us to the truth?: A Google Lens search on a keyframe that showed a signboard of the shop directed us to similar-looking visuals shared on a website named 'Tripadvisor'.
The name of the shop was identified as 'Sizzling Tandoori Hut'.
The location was mentioned as Aurora, Oregon, United States.
The shop is based in the United States.
(Source: Tripadvisor/Screenshot)
Geolocating the place: Taking this as a hint, we searched for the shop on Google Maps. Using the 'street view' option, we were able to locate the place where the video was recorded.
Comparing visuals: We compared keyframes from the viral video to visuals available in Google Maps.
It can be clearly seen that both visuals carry the same contact number and signboard.
The second comparisons shows a similar tractor outside the shop.
A comparison clearly highlights the similarities.
(Source: Google Maps/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
What about the audio?: Team WebQoof performed a keyword search in Hindi and found an interview published by NDTV, which was published in November 2020.
The same audio could be heard at the 03:30-minutes mark in the video, which made it clear that the viral video had been altered.
Conclusion: While we could not find the exact date of the viral video, we found that it was not from India.
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