Puri Rath Yatra video shared as protest for Modi’s resignation
A video was recently posted on Facebook claiming that “Dhaka’s July has descended upon the heart of Delhi.” According to the video description, thousands of people have taken to the streets demanding the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, a Dismislab fact-check found that the video does not show a protest in Delhi demanding Modi’s resignation. Instead, it shows a gathering of people at the Jagannath Temple in Puri during this year’s Rath Yatra
The video was posted on October 10 from a Facebook profile. The 25-second video displays the logo of Jagoron News, which identifies itself as a digital news outlet. A large gathering of people is seen in the video. The headline within the video reads, “Dhaka’s July has descended upon the heart of Delhi! Demand for resignation of fascist Modi” (verbatim). The post read, “To tell the truth, I am worried about her; she left her father’s house and went to her husband’s house, and now there is unrest at the husband’s house; what kind of burnt fate my sister brought with her into this world 😁😁😁.”
As of the publication of this report, the video had been viewed more than 42,000 times and shared more than 550 times.
The same video was posted by another profile named “Jatiya Nagorik Party Jhenaidah,” with the caption, “Dhaka’s July has arrived in the heart of Delhi. ✊♥️”
The same video was also circulated from multiple personal Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3) and a page in support of the claim of a crowd gathering in Delhi over Narendra Modi’s resignation.
In the course of the investigation, a reverse image search was conducted using keyframes from the video. This led to a video posted from an Instagram account on July 18. The caption reads, “Puri Shree jagannath ⭕❗⭕ tample” (verbatim) In addition, hashtags such as Puridham-Odisha and JagannathYatra2026 were used in the description. An exact match was found between the 26-second video and the circulating video.
For further verification, a relevant keyword search found a video posted on July 15 from the verified X account of the India-based news agency ANI, concerning the security arrangements at Puri’s Jagannath Temple ahead of the Rath Yatra. The surrounding scenery in that video matched the structures in the circulating video. The video’s description reads, “Odisha: Security tightened outside the Shree Jagannatha Temple in Puri ahead of the beginning of the Sri Jagannath Rath Yatra tomorrow.”
Previously, when the same video was circulated in India with the claim of a protest at Jantar Mantar, the incident was identified as a video from the time of the Puri Rath Yatra in the fact-check reports of multiple Indian fact-checking organizations.
In other words, the circulated video is not of a protest in Delhi demanding Modi’s resignation, but of a crowd gathering at Puri’s Jagannath Temple on the occasion of this year’s Rath Yatra.
