A set of images is being shared on social media to claim that news channel ABP News ran a bulletin on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's remark when he allegedly said that his ancestors and he are Muslims.
One of the images goes on to claim that Gandhi had apparently said, "It is important to help Pakistan and we shall definitely do it."
However, we found that the viral images are morphed versions of the official ABP News bulletin and the channel did not air any such visual.
CLAIM
The text written in one of the four images in circulation claimed that Rahul Gandhi had said that Congress is a party of Muslims and that it will always be theirs.
You can view the archived version here.
(Source: Facebook/ Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We came across a tweet shared by ABP News in November 2018 that carried the viral screenshots and mentioned that the channel did not broadcast the viral visuals.
The channel added that the viral visuals were doctored versions of the official template.
Further, we compared the viral screenshots with an official bulletin aired by ABP News in 2018 and found a stark difference in the fonts used in the two.
Left: Viral image. Right: 2018 ABP News bulletin.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
One of the viral screenshots mentioned the word 'Congress' written in Hindi. On comparing it with the official news bulletin, we found that the word had been misspelt.
Left: Viral image. Right: 2018 ABP News bulletin.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
Moreover, the current 'Breaking News' template being used by ABP News is different than the one seen in the viral images.
The template of current ABP News bulletin is very different as compared to the viral one.
(Photo: ABP News/ Screenshot)
2018 CONTROVERSY OVER RAHUL GANDHI'S REPORTED REMARK
In July 2018, a controversy had erupted when an Urdu daily Inquilab reported that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said that Congress was a "Muslim party".
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) had then taken a dig at the Congress leader and Gandhi had later tweeted that he and his party “loved all living beings”, and that their religion or caste did not matter.
Priyanka Chaturvedi, who was then associated with the Congress, had rubbished the report published by the newspaper.
Priyanka Chaturvedi had tweeted to rubbish the report published by Inquilab.
(Photo: Twitter/ Screenshot)
Historian S Irfan Habib had also tweeted that he was present at the meeting and that "no such issue had come up at all".
Historian S Irfan Habib tweeted in 2018 that he was present at the meeting.
(Photo: Twitter/ Screenshot)
Meanwhile, Journalist Mumtaz Alam Rizvi, who had written the report for Inquilab, then told news agency ANI that the Congress should not have retracted Rahul Gandhi’s statement.
"Rahul Gandhi said that if the BJP has made us a Muslim party, then yes we are a Muslim party because the Muslims in this country are weak and the Congress always stands for the weak. There is nothing wrong with what he said, the Congress should not be defensive in this matter," Rizvi had said.
News channel ABP News had also covered the controversy in 2018. However, no such content was aired as seen in the viral screenshots.
Clearly, social media users shared morphed images of ABP News bulletin to falsely attribute certain statements to Rahul Gandhi.
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