There has been no sign of a slowdown in farmers’ protests in India over the new price law.
The controversy has become very political, with thousands of farmers blocking the access road around the capital Delhi with their tractors and other machinery.
Both sides have tried to control the social media narrative, and we have taken a look at attempts to spread misinformation about well-known personalities in controversy.
Did Obama say it was ‘shameful’ to meet Modi?
Our first example is the claim of former US President Barack Obama, who met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on several occasions when he was in office.
There have been social media posts showing a picture of the two men together, in which Mr. Obama is now clearly expressing his regret about meeting Mr. Modi at the White House in 2014.
Some of these posts have hashtags that have supported farmers ’protests.
The image is real enough and that year is a real meeting between those two men.
However, the Twitter post is fake. The text is written in weak English with a spelling error, and President Obama’s Twitter profile appears to have been edited on it.
And an investigation by Mr Obama’s Twitter timeline has shown that no such tweets were made by him since the protests began last month.
Justin Trudeau in ‘Unity Show’?
It is about the next Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been embroiled in controversy after expressing concern over the Indian government’s response to the demonstration.
This led to a public rebuke from the Government of India.
Putting the issue aside, some people took to social media to spread a misleading picture of Mr Trudeau, claiming that he sat with a group of Sikhs (many farmers in India are Sikhs) in a demonstration of solidarity.
Canada has a significant population of Indian descent, many of whom are Sikhs.
But this image is misleading, as it is at least five years old.
This was confirmed to the BBC by the Prime Minister’s Office, who pointed out that Mr Trudeau was now playing the game of dau, while the image shows him without dau.
In November 2015, he visited a Sikh religious center in Towa. There is a local news report about this visit.
Whatever Mr. Trudeau’s views are on the current opposition in India, this has been used in its proper context.
A senior Indian minister could not turn the party around
Rajnath Singh, a senior member of the government and Gaurakshak of the ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), will be surprised to know that he actually supports the farmers’ protest.
A video claims to be showing up on social media.
In the video, Mr. Defense, who is the Minister of Defense, can be heard saying: “If I had known about this protest earlier, I could have come here and extended my support on the same day.”
Some of the posts attached to the video claim that the farmers’ movement has “caused a big split in the BJP”.
But a Google search revealed that this is an old video from 2013, when Mr Singh was in protest and supporting farmers against the then Congress-led government.
Mr. Singh delivered a speech at the time, endorsing his demand for a stable source of income, and it is available on his official website.
Mr. Singh, a former agriculture minister with an agricultural background, said in October that the current government would “do nothing against the interests of farmers”.
Is Punjab’s top politician working against farmers?
Our last example is Congress politician Amarinder Singh, the Chief Minister of the state of Punjab where many farmers come, and Mukesh Ambani, one of India’s best business tycoons.
The social media posts, which are an image with images of the two shaking hands – incorrectly – that they met just a day before the nationwide shutdown began to suppress their demands.
The text of a post asks: “On the one hand, the Congress supports the agitating farmers and on the other hand, it meets businessmen like Mr. Ambani … What kind of politics is this?”
The implication is that Mr Singh – despite his party’s public support for farmers – is working with the interests of private enterprises, which could benefit from changes in farming laws.
But the picture is three years old, from October to October 2017, when Mr. Singh met Mr. Ambani to discuss investment opportunities in Punjab.
According to social media posts – the claim is also wrong – Mr. Singh has accepted the government’s recent proposal – rejected by farmers – to humiliate some provisions in the new farming law.
Mr. Singh has continued to support his demand for the complete repeal of the new laws.
Read more from Reality Check
Send us your questions
