CLAIM
Users on Twitter claimed that Rahul Gandhi, who is currently undertaking the Mansarovar Yatra, is tweeting pictures off the internet and passing them off as images taken during his pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar.
The claim was made by various BJP supporters including Priti Gandhi, who is BJP’s social media national in-charge.
Another Twitter user, Vikas Pandey, who identifies himself as a BJP volunteer made a similar claim with the same screenshot that was shared by Priti Gandhi.
Among the people who questioned the authenticity of Rahul Gandhi’s images was Post Card News’s Co-Founder Mahesh Hegde.
VERDICT: TRUE OR FALSE?
Well, it is false. Congress President Rahul Gandhi hasn’t posted these pictures off the internet.
Now since we have told you that the claim made by the users on the internet is false, let us break it down for you step-by-step.
Firstly, as it is evident from the screenshots that the Twitter users have posted, the whole narrative is based on the same screenshot which has been encircled and shared. And if you notice the encircled picture, you can see ‘Justdial.com’ written underneath.
According to fact check website SMHoaxSlayer, as opposed to what the Twitter users are claiming, the pictures on Justdial account were pictures posted on Rahul Gandhi’s Justdial account. (Here is the link to the account)
Justdial’s social networking platform aggregates content from other social media platforms and in this case, it was aggregated from Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter feed.
However, it doesn’t stop here.
There was another claim made by Vikas Pandey who posted another picture from a website called Earth Tripper claiming Gandhi’s pictures were taken from this website.
However, the picture posted by Rahul Gandhi and the one posted by Vikas Pandey don’t appear to be the same. The cloud formation in both the images is completely different.
As the netizens questioned whether Rahul Gandhi was really in Mansarovar or not, the Indian National Congress released pictures of Rahul Gandhi from his trip.
They even released Gandhi’s Fitbit data.
BACKGROUND
Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage has been at the centre of a controversy since the very beggining, with netizens claiming that Gandhi ate non-vegetarian food in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu before embarking on the pilgrimage.
Gandhi started the pilgrimage on 31 August.
(With inputs from SM HoaxSlayer and AltNews)
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