Authors
India’s Republic Day witnessed violent clashes between the police and protesting farmers in the national capital after a few tractors deviated from designated routes for the rally.
To prevent a repeated incident, the police have gone to great lengths to keep protesting farmers at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur at bay. They’ve done this by cementing iron grills and spikes on roads, adding layers of barricades with concrete between two barriers, along with concertina wire and boulders.
It’s been over two months since farmers have been protesting at various Delhi’s borders against three farm bills introduced by the Central government last year.
Amid this, images of tractors with spikes for wheels are being shared with the claim that protesting farmers’ are preparing to respond to the government.
One such claim shared on 3 February reads, “बिना टायर ट्यूब के चक्के तैयार किए जा रहे हैं ट्रैक्टर के | सरकार द्वारा सड़कों पर कीलें लगाने का जवाब देने के लिए, साहिब जी यह होता है आत्म निर्भर भारत”
Translated (roughly) from Hindi to English it reads, “Wheels without tire tube are being prepared by tractor. To respond to the government planting spikes on the roads, Sahib Ji this is self dependent India”
Fact Check/ Verification
We performed a Google reverse image search of each of the three images. Search of the first image led us to a Tumblr account link via Pinterest. Published five years ago, the image is captioned, “Modern tractor on steel wheels, pretty much the norm in my area with the old order menonites.”
Reverse Google searching the second image, we stumbled across the Gruber Family History website which attributed the claim’s image to a 1930 John Deere tractor model. The words “John Deere” can be seen written in the claim’s image as well.
For the third image, we Google reverse searched it with the keywords “massey harris 55 tractor.” This led us to a website called Image Event. We found the same image from the claim here titled, “1947 Massey Harris Model 55 Tractor (August 2014).” Further searching with this title, we found the exact image from the claim on dreamstime.com. Observe the image in the claim also includes the dreamstime watermark.
We verified this claim in our Punjabi fact-check as well.
Conclusion
Our research makes it clear that the images in the claim are not related to the ongoing farmers’ protest in Delhi. As we’ve mentioned, the images are from different years and places brought together in the current farmers’ protest context to mislead users.
Result: Misplaced Context
Our Sources
Gruber Family History website: https://www.gruberfamilyhistory.us/
Dreamstime stock image: https://www.dreamstime.com/editorial-stock-photo-massy-harris-model-farm-tractor-massey-came-steel-wheels-image41883143
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