Indian politics Sonia Gandhi

What gets you worried about Indian politics?

The levels to which the present day followers/ supporters of political parties in India can sink, just to vilify their political opponents for some political gains.

Politics in India had never been a gentleman’s game, or always fought on ideological considerations. There were always personal mudslinging and character assassination of political adversaries. Use of false allegations and fake rumors/gossip about the personal lives of politicians was not all that rare.But I think still nothing has hit the nadir of public indecency for the sake of political gains like this fake photograph getting circulated and shared on social media.

A photograph of former UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi seen seated in the lap of another person has been uploaded on Facebook. The public group WE SUPPORT NARENDRA MODI with a membership of close to three million, has posted this photograph, which has been shared over 800 times.

The photograph has also been posted by the page Asaram Bapu, and by an individual user, whose post has been shared over 300 times. The message posted along with the photo is identical: 

This photograph had been circulated on social media in 2018 as well. Facebook page Yogi Sarkar had posted it in May 2018, which was shared over 3500 times. It was also shared on Twitter. This photograph had been fact-checked by Alt News Hindi in May 2018, when it was shared widely. Alt News found that the origin of this photograph is Sonia Gandhi’s meeting with the then Maldives President Abdul Gayoom during the latter’s visit to India in 2005.

The image was mischievously photoshopped and made to appear as if Ms. Gandhi is seated in the lap of Mr. Gayoom. Sonia Gandhi’s image from the above picture was cropped and placed together with that of Mr. Gayoom. The video posted below is a step-by-step illustration of how this was possibly achieved.