43-Year-Old Student Protesting Fee hike? JNU Master’s Student Misidentified in Viral Image

A screengrab of a Zee News broadcast, where a woman can be seen standing in a crowd, is being shared on social media. One Kanak Mishra posted the image with a claim that the woman is a 43-year-old student at Jawaharlal Nehru University whose daughter is also studying in the same institute. The Facebook post has been shared more than 1,400 times at the time of writing this article. The post is being shared in the backdrop of a student protest against the fee hike at the university. According to media reports, the leaders of JNU Students’ Union have gone for a meeting with the joint secretary of the Human Resource Department Ministry after a day-long protest.

Many people on Facebook and Twitter shared the image with a similar narrative.

Fact-check

At 2:56 mins in the broadcast video posted below, one can see the same girl along with a group of protesters, hooting at a Zee News reporter, as seen in the viral screengrab.

We reached out to Shambhavi Siddhi, the girl whose image from a broadcast is being shared on social media. In a conversation with Alt News, Shambhavi said, “This is Shambhavi Siddhi, student of masters 2nd year, french literature!”, and added that she is a 23-year-old student and not a 43-years-old.

In conclusion, a screengrab from a Zee News broadcast, where a woman protester was seen shouting slogans against the channel, is being shared with the false claim that she is a 43-year-old student at JNU.