Credit: Vishvas News; modified by DH
Amid the Wayanad Lok Sabha bye-election, a photo of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is becoming increasingly viral on social media. Gandhi is wearing a white T-shirt and bearing a slogan on the back, that reads: ‘I love nafrat ki dukan.’
Some users have shared the photo with the claim that he wore the T-shirt while campaigning in the Wayanad election.
Vishvas News found that the viral claim is false and the picture is edited. The original picture has ‘I Love Wayanad’ written on the T-shirt.
What is going viral?
Facebook user ‘India272+’ shared the photo on November 11, 2024 and wrote in the caption (translated from Hindi), “Who is wearing this T-shirt?? Who is the one who wants to run a shop of hatred? If you understand then please comment and let me know.”
The investigation
To find out the truth behind the viral claim, we searched on Google with the help of relevant keywords and found the original picture on the official X account of the Congress party. It was posted on November 11, 2024. The original picture has ‘I love Wayanad’ written on the back of the T-shirt Gandhi was wearing. The caption states that the picture is from a rally in Wayanad.
Taking the investigation forward, we started looking for videos of this rally. We found a video on the official YouTube page of the Congress on November 11, 2024. According to the information available, Rahul had reached Wayanad in Kerala to hold a rally and road show for his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the party’s candidate for the election. During this, he wore a T-shirt with ‘I Love Wayanad’ written on it. This T-shirt was a topic of discussion in the road show.
According to a report published on the website of Dainik Jagran on November 12, 2024, Gandhi had contested the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, from two seats: Rae Bareli and Wayanad. He won both. He subsequently resigned from the Wayanad seat and his sister entered the fray for the by-election. .
For more information, we contacted Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Abhimanyu Tyagi. He said the viral photo was edited and the claim it made was “political propaganda”.
We scanned the account of the FB user who had posted the manipulated photo and the claim. We found that the user often shares posts aligned with a particular ideology. The user is followed by 2.8 million people.
Conclusion: Vishvas News found in its investigation that the claim being made about the viral T-shirt photo of Rahul Gandhi is false. The picture is edited. In the original photo, the T-shirt bears the slogan ‘I Love Wayanad’, which has been edited and is now being made viral with a false claim.
This story was originally published by Vishvas News, and republished by Deccan Herald as part of the Shakti Collective.