A video is going viral on social media in which a group of young people can be seen burning a dummy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While circulating the video, it is widely claimed that the protest in Aara is taking place due to a shortage of LPG and petrol. Through the viral video, some users are also claiming that the protest is happening because of the growing tensions between India & Iran and India’s alignment with Israel.
While sharing the video, a user named “North Korea TV” wrote in a post: *“Breaking: Thousands of Indians are protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over normalization with Israel and creating tensions with Iran, burning his photos and telling him: ‘Make Israel give us oil.”
Another user named يران | IRAN shared the same video with a caption in Arabic, which translates into English as: “Thousands of Indians are protesting against Prime Minister Modi because he has normalized relations with Israel and sparked tensions with Iran; they burned Modi’s dummy and told him: “Get us oil from Israel.”
Fact Check:
During the investigation, the DFRAC team found that the viral video is not related to any recent protest. The video is from January and has no connection with the Iran–Israel conflict. In fact, the video is from a protest against the University Grants Commission (UGC) rules in the Aara district of Bihar. To verify the claim, we conducted a “reverse image search” using keyframes from the viral video. We found that the same video had been shared by several social media users on 26 January 2026.
An Instagram user named “aranews03” shared the video on 28 January with a Hindi caption that translates into English as: “Breaking News Protest against #UGC seen in Ara; Dummy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi burnt.”
Another user also shared the same video on 30 January, mentioning that the protest in the Aara district was related to the UGC guidelines and involved the burning of a dummy of PM Modi.
For further investigation, our team contacted “Ara News” reporter Amrendra. He confirmed that the viral video is indeed from Aara, but it is not from any recent protest and has no connection with the Iran–Israel conflict. According to him, the video shows the burning of PM Modi’s dummy in protest against UGC guidelines at Chandwa Mor in Aara district.
Our team also contacted the Aara Police. A police official stated that there has been no recent incident of the burning of dummies depicting PM Modi. The police also confirmed that the viral video is “old”.
Conclusion:
The fact-check by DFRAC confirms that the viral video is not from any recent protest in Aara and is also not related to the Iran–Israel conflict. The video is actually from a protest against the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines held in January. Therefore, the users’ claim is misleading.
