Fact-Check: Viral Photo of Sheikh Hasina With Hindu Seers is Altered

The original image shows Rahul Gandhi with the priests and not Hasina.

Fact-check: An old image of Rahul Gandhi was altered to claim that Sheikh Hasina was taking part in Hindu culture.

(Photo: The Quint)

An image showing a priest applying tilak mark on former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's forehead is going viral online.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot) 

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

Is this true?: No, this photo is edited.

• The original image shows Leader of Opposition of Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi with the seers at Sivagiri Mutt in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on Google and found the original image shared by Congress' official account on X (formerly Twitter).

• The post included four images and one of them matched with the viral image.

• This was shared on 14 September 2022.

The original image shows Rahul Gandhi with several priests at Sivagiri Mutt, a pilgrimage place in Kerala.

Here is a comparison.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

• Several news reports including The Hindu, Kerala Kaumudi and Onmanorama also shared how Gandhi visited Sivagiri Mutt when he started Bharat Jodo Yatra in September 2022.

• Moreover, we did not find any news reports about Hasina visiting interacting with Hindu priests recently.

Conclusion: An old image of Rahul Gandhi was altered to claim that Sheikh Hasina was taking part in Hindu cultural practices.

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