Fact Check: Viral Photo Of Mahatma Gandhi Touching Dr Ambedkar’s Feet Is Edited

New Delhi (Vishvas News) – Social media is buzzing with a picture of Mahatma Gandhi bowing to Dr BR Ambedkar. Many users are sharing this image believing it to be real. Upon investigation,  Vishvas News discovered that the viral picture has been edited and two separate photos were merged to create this misleading picture.

What’s in the Viral Post?

Facebook user ‘Sheshrao Ganvir’ shared this edited image on September 1, 2024, with the caption, “Gandhiji touching the feet of Baba Sahib. You will not find this photo anywhere. Spread it.”  

The archived link of the post can be accessed here.

Investigation

To verify the authenticity of this image, we divided it into sections. First, we cropped the image of Dr Ambedkar and his wife. We traced the original photo to a gallery on a website dedicated to Dr Ambedkar. The image in the gallery features Dr Ambedkar and his wife, with no presence of Mahatma Gandhi.

Next, we cropped the section featuring Mahatma Gandhi. Upon searching it on Google Lens, we found the original image on Weebly.com. In the original image, Mahatma Gandhi was touching the ground, not someone’s feet.

A side-by-side comparison of the edited and original images is shown in the collage below:

To confirm our findings, Vishvas News reached out to Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi,  who confirmed that the image was indeed edited.

Lastly, we scanned the Facebook profile of ‘Sheshrao Ganvir’, the user who shared this viral image. He has over 5000 followers and is based in Nagpur.