Fact Check: ‘Aurangzeb’ Photo-Shopped Into The Picture Of Rahul Gandhi Filing The Nomination For The President Of Congress

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 4^th 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:

 

 

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 6^th 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 4^th 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 (4^th December), Prime Minister Narendra Modi compared the opposition leader’s expected “elevation” to the “Aurangzeb Raj”. Source: Hindustan Times

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:

https://twitter.com/GoogleKiyaKya/status/939435571176382465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener

• 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-