Photo Of Railway Station Board With 'Tamil Nadu Says Go Back Modi' Is Altered

The viral photo is doctored. The original photo shows 'Kanniyakumari' written on the railway station board.

Fact-check: The viral posts professes a hateful message for PM Modi by sharing an edited image of a railway station board.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

An image, showing a railway station's board with text 'Tamil Nadu Says Go Back Modi. We Hate You' written over it, is being shared on social media.

The photo comes in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming visit to Chennai on 26 May, where he is scheduled to inaugurate various development projects.

However, we found out that the original photo shows the signboard at Kanniyakumari Railway Station, which reads 'Kanniyakumari'. The viral image has been edited to replace the text.

CLAIM

The image is being shared widely on social media. Some of the captions read, "Tamil Nadu Always says 👇 #GoBackModi (sic)."

Archived version of the post can be seen here. 

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

Similar posts can be seen here, here, here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On conducting a reverse image search on the viral photo using Yandex, we came across an article published on Business Insider on 17 March 2016.

The article gave image credit to Ed Hanley, a photographer, who documented his journey in 2016 on the Dibrugarh-Kanniyakumari Vivek Express, the longest ride in India.

The photo was clicked by Ed Hanley in 2016.

(Source: Business Insider/Screenshot)

Next, we found Ed Hanley's official website which carried a link to a YouTube video titled 'Kanyakumari Express Timelapse'.

The timelapse video was uploaded by Hanley on 3 March 2016 and it carried the viral photo's original version at 1:41 timestamp.

The video showed the Dibrugarh-Kanniyakumari Vivek Express' journey which lasted for 85 hours.

Similarities can be spotted on comparing the original photo with the viral one.

The original photo was taken at Kanniyakumari railway station in 2016.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

Evidently, a photograph of Tamil Nadu's Kanniyakumari railway station board was manipulated to profess a message of Tamil Nadu being against PM Modi.

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