Old Photo of Kiren Rijiju Passed Off as Recent Visit to Arunachal Pradesh

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju posted a similar picture on his official Twitter account in 2019.

A picture of Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju, which shows him meeting some soldiers, is going viral on the internet.

Who shared it?: Media organisations such as Zee News, Times Now, All India Radio News, and right-wing propaganda website OpIndia, among others, have shared the picture to claim that it is from his recent visit to the Yangtse area in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang.

(Swipe right to view all the claims.)

(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)

News organisations Hindustan Times and India Today also put up articles with the same claim but later corrected it.

The context: Rijiju took to Twitter to share this image on 17 December (archive here).

• He mentioned that the Yangtse area in Tawang is safe due to an adequate deployment of army officers.

• He shared it in response to Rahul Gandhi's statement where the latter questioned the failures of the central government over the India-China clash that took place on 9 December.

Is the picture recent?: No, the image is three-year-old.

• A similar picture of Rijiju meeting army officials was posted on his official Twitter account in October 2019.

• It shows the Union Minister meeting with Arunachal Scouts, an infantry regiment of the Indian Army.

How do we know?:

• We found that several social media users had pointed out that the Union Minister tweeted a similar picture in 2019.

• Taking this as a cue, we searched Rijiju's Twitter account and found a similar picture posted on 29 October 2019.

The Arunachal Scouts is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army. It is guarding India's border with China in Arunachal Pradesh. It specializes in mountain warfare. Happy to be with them on the auspicious occasion of Diwali. pic.twitter.com/7KAHewrp4o

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) October 29, 2019

On comparing the viral image with the old one, we found both are from the same day.

Has Rijiju visited Tawang after the recent clash?: We spoke with local journalists and police officials who told The Quint that the member of Parliament had not visited Tawang since the recent clash.

Conclusion: Several media organisations have shared pictures of a 2019 visit of the Union Minister with a misleading claim.

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