Recently on various Twitter handles, a fake image is being shared. It shows a framed picture of ‘Aurangzeb’ behind Rahul Gandhi, while he was filing the nomination for the President of Congress, sitting along with senior congress leaders, on 4th December at All India Congress Committee (AICC) HQ, in New Delhi.
NARRATIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
These types of messages are usually shared to create confusion in the minds of readers or to push forward a specific confirmation bias or sometimes just for satire. This message has been shared on Twitter with 183 Retweets 515 Likes:
— PhD in Bakchodi (@Atheist_Krishna) December 4, 2017
OUR FACT CHECK
Fact Crescendo team did a fact check on this issue. We did Google Reverse Image search & also researched various Twitter handles to see who were sharing and commenting on this fake picture.
We found the following:
- This fake picture has been shared around on Twitter for past few days.
- This manipulated image is trying to push forward a narrative that Rahul Gandhi is similar to ‘Emperor Aurangzeb’, who colloquially in India represents a ‘ruthless & bigot dictator’. Our readers can know more about 6th Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb here.
- The original image was taken when Rahul Gandhi was filing the nomination for the President of Congress, sitting along with senior congress leaders, on 4th December at All India Congress Committee (AICC) HQ, in New Delhi.
(Photo: Twitter | @INCIndia)
In the original picture, our readers can easily see that it was actually a framed picture of ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ behind Rahul Gandhi, while he was filing the nomination of President of Congress.
Our readers can view the links to know more about this event & also see various pictures verifying the position of the framed ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ picture behind Rahul Gandhi:
Hindustan Times
India Today
Indiatribune
Asian Age
Times of India
Shortly after Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination for the Congress president post on Monday (4th December), Prime Minister Narendra Modi compared the opposition leader’s expected “elevation” to the “Aurangzeb Raj”. Source: Hindustan Times
#BREAKING | PM @narendramodi tears into @officeofRg on the day of his nomination for @INCIndia president's post. Calls Rahul coronation ‘Aurangzeb Raj’ | Tweet your views on #MughalRaGa pic.twitter.com/qIn3CNT42k
— News18 (@CNNnews18) December 4, 2017
#RahulCoronation — Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar landed in controversy when he invoked rulers of the Mughal dynasty to defend Rahul Gandhi’s elevation as party chief. #MughalRaGa https://t.co/h0Z1S1kHXx
— News18 (@CNNnews18) December 4, 2017
People who wish to push forward this type of comparison of ’Aurangzeb Raj’, have been using this image or creating similar types of images and sharing them on social media, sometimes for satire and other times for propagating a confirmation bias. Few examples are below:
Do we need the #AurangzebRaj to understand that @INCIndia indeed has ruled as a Dynasty?
If the Cong. Party truly wants to elect @OfficeOfRG as their
president, what's the problem?
It's all happening under the clutches of our Democracy. #RahulMughalEmperor pic.twitter.com/KGnyOxqFpf— shagun tyagi (@TyagiShagun) December 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/MahaBharat2019/status/937679450824568833
Real Fun…?????#RahulMughalEmperor
Election Of Congress President… pic.twitter.com/NVKYfGTHgt— Gujju (@GoogleKiyaKya) December 9, 2017
- Our readers can themselves see the difference between the pictures:
IN CONCLUSION
Fact Crescendo team tags these kinds of pictures as Fake and Manipulated. These kinds of manipulated images will be shared across by many people using WhatsApp and other social media applications again & again. But we as readers should be aware of the reality of these kinds of pictures, as to what they really are – just Fake.
Fact Crescendo advises its readers to refrain from falling prey to unsubstantiated & misleading WhatsApp forwards and social media posts. When in doubt, visit various news media & fact checking websites online.
Dear Readers,
Do you feel that a certain story is fake? Do you know some additional factual details about a claim being shared on social media?
Then you can submit that claim or news here, for our team to verify and fact check for you.
Thanks,
-Fact Crescendo Team-
