Edited photos of PM Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi are going viral on social media. Some users are sharing these to target both politicians.
New Delhi (Vishvas News): Some pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi are going viral on social media. In the pictures, PM Modi was staring at a board which reads, “Rs 20,000 crore belongs to whom?”. In other pictures, the PM can be seen looking at the pictures of Gautam Adani. Meanwhile, in the viral picture of Rahul Gandhi, photos related to other scams including the 2G scam and Bofors can be seen.
Vishvas News fact-checked all these and found that these pictures of PM Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi are edited. By tampering with the original pictures, they are being shared to spread propaganda.
Claim:
Facebook user ‘Ratnesh Dwivedi Niwadi‘ (archive link) posted the picture of the PM on May 16 and wrote, “The question is still the same…whose Rs 20,000 crore is it? The question is that he doesn’t leave the chase!!”.
Twitter user Raga Army also posted some pictures of PM Modi.
Facebook user ‘Congress lover‘ (archive link) also posted a picture on May 17. In this, PM Modi can be seen looking at the computer screen, where it is written: “10 ways to save Adani from JPC”
In response, Twitter users Atul Kushwaha (archive link) and Tarachand Saraswat (archive link) posted a picture of Rahul Gandhi in which he can be seen in a gallery and there are some screens on the walls, on which different pictures of several scams including the 2G and Bofors scams can be seen.
Investigation:
To verify the viral images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi, we performed a Google reverse image search.
In the first picture, PM Modi can be seen looking at a screen on the wall. It is written on it, “Rs 20,000 Crore belongs to whom?”. On reverse image search, a link was found to the news published in Punjab Kesari on May 14. A photo similar to the viral picture has been used in the news report. It is written that Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the National Art Gallery on May 14.
We also found information and videos related to this program on PM of India’s website. It states that Prime Minister Modi visited the Jan Shakti Art Exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi. Amazing works of art based on some episodes of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ have been displayed in the exhibition. Pictures of this program have also been tweeted from the Twitter handle of PM Narendra Modi.
On comparing the location in both the pictures is the same. However, in the viral pictures, a screen is visible on the wall while in the original images, a painting can be seen hanging on the wall.
In the second viral picture, the PM is standing in a gallery looking at the pictures of Adani and himself. On reverse image search, we found a similar picture on the website of ANI News. In this, PM Modi is looking at the painting in the gallery.
There are some other people with him. The ANI news report further mentioned that this picture is also of Jan Shakti Art Exhibition.
In the viral picture, PM Modi is alone and Adani’s pictures are hanging on the wall while in the original picture, PM Modi is not alone and a painting is hanging on the wall.
In the third viral picture, PM Modi can be seen looking at the pictures of Adani and himself hanging on the wall of the gallery.
However, during our investigation, a similar picture was found in the ANI news report. In the picture published by ANI News, the PM is standing with a man and is looking at the painting hanging on the wall.
4th Picture
On Google reverse image search of the picture of Facebook user ‘Congress lover’, we found a similar photo on NarendraModi.in website. This picture has been uploaded on February 19, 2014. In this picture, the computer screen that PM Modi is looking at has a website with Namo’s number open on it.
Vishvas News contacted BJP National Spokesperson Vijay Sonkar Shastri in the next phase of the investigation and shared PM Modi’s viral pictures with him. He said, “This is all propaganda against PM Modi. All the pictures are edited.”
5th Picture
Further, we also did a Google reverse image search of the picture shared by Twitter users Atul Kushwaha and Tarachand Sharaswat. A similar picture has been posted by the verified Twitter handle of the Congress. In a tweet made on August 23, 2018, it is written that Rahul Gandhi strolling in the ‘Archive of German Members of Parliament’.
In the viral photo of Rahul Gandhi, pictures or screens are visible on the walls, while in the original photo, there are no screens or pictures in the gallery.
ABPlive published a news on 5th April and stated, “Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has once again raised a question as to who has Rs 20,000 crore in Gautam Adani’s company. When the media asked Rahul Gandhi a question about China, he said, “Whose Rs 20,000 crore are in Adani’s shell company?”
For the unversed, Rahul Gandhi has been attacking the Center for a long time over the assets of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani. Rahul had said during the meeting of the Central Election Committee of the Congress that he has only one question, who has invested Rs 20,000 crore in Adani’s shell companies? Earlier on April 2, Rahul had asked this question through social media.
At the end of the investigation, we scanned the profile of Facebook user ‘Ratnesh Dwivedi, Niwari‘. This page, created on 3 April 2019, has about 17,000 followers. This page is influenced by a political party.
Conclusion: Edited photos of PM Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi are going viral on social media. Some users are sharing these to target both politicians.
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