Photo of Homestay in Kerala Shared To Push Anti-Reservation Narrative

The house is located in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district and was a homestay until 2017.

A photograph of a multi-storeyed house is doing the rounds on social media, along with a piece of text, which discusses the reservation system in the country.

The users who have shared the post refer to the owner of the house as "my friend" and accuse them of exploiting the reservation system. The post claims that the system is causing problems by not rewarding merit.

However, this photo is of a property that was formerly a homestay in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala, and the narrative doesn't hold true.

CLAIM

The photo is being shared with a narrative that strongly opposes the reservation system, criticising it for allegedly giving opportunities to those who do not need them. It claims that the system is exploited by people in the reserved categories to get into top higher learning institutions and get jobs in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).

It highlights the example of the users' "friend," to whom the house allegedly belongs, and alleges that reservations fail to promote merit.

Several social media users have copy-pasted the same claim across platforms.

Archives of more claims across social media can be seen here, here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We conducted a reverse image search on the photo on TinEye, which led us to travel website Goibibo.

The link to the photo showed the text 'DJ Holidays Pathanamthitta.'

Taking a cue from this, we looked up 'DJ Holidays Pathanamthitta' and came across a website called keralainformation.com, which also carried the same photo.

This website carried contact numbers for the place, as well as its complete address.

The Quint got in touch with the former owner of the place, who didn't wish to be named, but said that he had sold the property three years ago and clarified that the claim was "absolutely false."

Fact-checking website Boom visited the former owner's residence, located behind the property in the photo, which he earlier ran as a homestay. He told the website that he had not studied in the institutes mentioned in the claim.

He also said that he belonged to the Marthoma Christian community, which falls under the general category bracket, which made him ineligible for reservations.

Sharing the details of the person whom he sold the property to, he said that the details of the claim weren't true for that person either.

Evidently, a photograph of a building, which was formerly a homestay and is currently under renovation, is being shared with the claim that it belongs to someone who allegedly misused the reservation system.

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