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Fact Check: Old Photos Revived To Claim Police Brutality During Recent Protests Against Unemployment In UP
Writer: Aditi Chattopadhyay
Aditi, part of the fact checking team of The Logical Indian likes to read, write, cook and laugh, in short live life as it is supposed to be. What makes her fascinated is to discover the truth behind a story and more often than not, it is either fact or myth at the end.
Uttar Pradesh, 21 Sep 2020 11:39 AM GMT
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The Logical Indian Fact check team investigates the claim that a set of photographs show scenes of police brutality against protesters asking for employment in Uttar Pradesh.
A set of photographs which show police brutality against protesters is being shared with the claim that these are from the recent protests against unemployment in Uttar Pradesh.
Indian Express reported on 18 September that students and youths had organised protests across Uttar Pradesh on the issue of increasing unemployment. In Lucknow, the police lathi-charged on the protesters that included youths belonging to Samajwadi Party, Congress's students wing NSUI, as well as AAP.
As part of 'Berozgari Diwas' (unemployment day) protests, in some places, youths fried pakodas, burnt their copies of degrees and polished shoes.
Last week, on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 70th birthday, Twitter users trended a hashtag highlighting unemployment and the economic crisis the country is facing. Various individuals and political parties simultaneously launched a social media campaign and the day was soon called "National Unemployment Day" on social media.
Hashtags '#17Sept17Hrs17Minutes', '#राष्ट्रीयबेरोजगारदिवस' trended since morning on the social media platform. Reportedly these hashtags were a part of the protest campaign against the government's failure to tackle the ongoing economic crisis along with a surging unemployment rate.
Hashtag #NationalUnemploymentDay had over 4.18 million tweets, while, #राष्ट्रीय_बेरोजगारी_दिवस over 1.68 million tweets.
"You voted for religion and temple, if you ask for jobs now you'll get (beaten with) sticks #Regret (Translated to English)," reads the caption of one such post.
Claim:
Photographs show scenes of police brutality against protesters asking for employment in Uttar Pradesh.
Fact Check:
The claim is false. The photos are from 2018.
A reverse image search of the viral photos led to news reports from two years ago.
Reportedly, protestors were injured after police had to resort to baton-charge to quell a demonstration against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government outside the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in Lucknow back in November 2018. The protestors who were mainly applicants for the 68,500 posts of assistant teachers in primary schools, were demonstrating against the Adityanath government's alleged corruption in the selection.
"The Chief Minister Adityanath administration had dismissed the selection of over 12,460 teachers through an exam advertised in 2016 during the previous Samajwadi Party-led administration and initiated a new selection process in 2018 to fill the 68,500 posts," read a report.
According to the protestors they had requested to be shown copies of their assessed answer scripts and discovered that they were not theirs. They had also alleged several discrepancies in the selection process.
The Allahabad High Court which directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct an enquiry into the selection process to fill the 68,500 posts of teachers as advertised by the Yogi Adityanath administration earlier that year sparked the protests.
Below are tweets carrying the viral photos from that time by Samajwadi party spokesperson Richa Singh, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and journalist Prashant Kumar:
Another report on the incident can be read here.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
Also Read: Fact Check: Kangana Ranaut Claims She Was "Forced To Vote For Shiv Sena", Was She?
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