B’desh Pic Passed off as UP Man ‘Failed UPSC Due to Reservation’

The photo claiming to show Lucknow’s Rajesh Tiwari’s struggle is actually of Sayeed Rimon from Bangladesh.

The photo claiming to show Rajesh Tiwari's plight is of Sayeed Rimon from Bangladesh. 

(Photo:Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

An image of a man is being shared across social media platforms claiming that it shows one Rajesh Tiwari from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, who could not clear the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams as his marks were lower than the cut-off for 'General' category, whereas people scoring lower than him belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes cleared it on account of having a lower cut-off.

However, we found that the man seen in the image is Sayeed Rimon, a textile engineer from Bangladesh, who runs awareness campaigns on social issues and the image dates back to 2016.

CLAIM

The verified handle of Facebook user Nandan Jha shared the image with the claim:

"He is Rajesh Tiwari, 29, Lucknow, The Only person who earn in the family of Seven Members. He Got 643 Marks in UPSC Civil Services exam this year, But Failed coz Cut Off for General Category was 689 this year. For SC/ST it was 601.
So according to this the one who have got 601 will become our next Bureaucrat. Fault of Rajesh Tiwari and thousand of other like him is only that they have born in General Category, So despite of having financial crisis they have to be called Upper Caste.
But people like Mayawati who have crores of property will be called as DALIT and will be provided Reservation for Generations. I am not Against any Caste. I want equality. (sic)"

The archived version of this post can be seen here.

However, the post was later taken down. The claim was also posted on the Facebook page of 'Say NO To Reservation System in India' in 2018 and was shared by over 27,000 users.

Posts with the same claim on Twitter can be seen here and here. The claim has been doing the round since 2017 and the archived version of the posts shared across the years can be seen here, here and here.

The Quint received a query about the claim made in the image on its WhatsApp tipline as well.

WHAT WE FOUND

Using reverse image search, we found an article on the website of Bangladesh-based TV channel Ekushey TV that carried the viral image. Published on 11 April 2019, the article mentioned a person called Sayeed Rimon and his awareness campaigns.

It stated that Rimon, a textile engineer, is an individual who carried out elaborate awareness campaigns related to social problems, like drug use, road accidents and unemployment.

Further, Rimon’s Facebook account had uploaded the viral image in November 2016 and the caption along with it mentioned the rise in unemployment.

On 2 June, Rimon responded to a Facebook post making the viral claim and said that he is a Bangladeshi.

Earlier, media outlets, such as BBC Bangla and Dhaka Tribune, had carried reports detailing Rimon’s awareness campaigns.

We also checked UPSC's website and found that 2017 onwards, the only time that the final cut-off had dipped below the 700-mark was for a certain category of people with disabilities in 2019 and was set at 653 marks.

Clearly, the image of a man from Bangladesh was shared to falsely claim that he is Rajesh Tiwari from Lucknow who couldn’t clear the UPSC exams due to the cut-off marks for the General category.

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