WebQoof Recap: Cong MP’s Falsehoods & Gadkari’s 10-Year-Old Video

Here’s a round-up of all that misled the public this week.

(Photo: Shruti Mathur/ The Quint)

From Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury making false claims in Lok Sabha about Home Minister Amit Shah sitting on Rabindranath Tagore’s chair during his visit to West Bengal, to social media users reviving a decade-old video of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari slamming the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, here’s all that misled the public this week.

1. Cong MP Makes False Claims About Shah Sitting on Tagore’s Chair

Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury while addressing the Lok Sabha on Monday, 8 February, claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during his visit to West Bengal in December sat on Rabindranath Tagore’s chair at Rabindra Bhavan in Shantiniketan.

The Congress parliamentarian also alleged that Shah and Bharatiya Janata Party President JP Nadda referred to Shantiniketan as Tagore’s birthplace.

Image used for representational purposes.

However, both of Chowdhury’s claims fall flat, as we found that neither did Amit Shah sit on Tagore’s chair nor did Shah or Nadda refer to Shantiniketan as the nobel laureate’s birthplace. Further, in a letter by Viswa Bharti University addressed to Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Vice Chancellor of the university himself said that the seat on which Amit Shah was sitting is not the chair of Rabindranath Tagore, but a makeshift one previously also occupied by several dignitaries including Jawaharlal Nehru, Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina.

You can read the full story here.

2. Gadkari Slams PM Modi for ‘Andolanjeevi’ Remark? No, Video Is Old

A 10-year-old video of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari slamming the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over his remarks on those protesting against corruption in the country has been revived on social media as a recent one.

You can view an archived version here.

This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the term ‘Andolanjeevi’ – referring to people who ‘live off protests’ – in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, 8 February, while defending the farm laws, against which the farmers are protesting.

The video dates back to 2011 and shows Gadkari referring to the anti-corruption movement that swept the nation in 2011, spearheaded by activist Anna Hazare.

You can read the full story here.

3. Fake Account of Naseeruddin Shah Crops up, Shares Misinformation

A fake Twitter account of Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah, which after our fact-check updated its Twitter bio to say that it’s a parody account, had cropped up with as many as 49,500 people following it at the time of publishing our fact-check.

We found several red flags in the said Twitter profile that is spreading misinformation, to ascertain that it’s an impostor account.

You can view archived version here.

The said impostor account’s earlier Twitter handle was ‘@RakeshTkaite’. A user had tagged ‘@RakeshTkaite’ in a tweet shared on 7 February. On clicking the said handle, we found that the account details of Naseeruddin’s fake account appears.

Further, Ratna Pathak Shah, Naseeruddin Shah’s wife, confirmed to The Quint’s WebQoof team that the actor does not have any Twitter account.

You can read the full story here.

4. Image of RSS Workers Helping in Relief Work Is Not From Chamoli

An image of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers providing relief material is being shared on social media with a claim that it is from the recent Uttarakhand glacier burst tragedy.

An archived version of the post can be accessed here

However, we found that the said image is from 2013, when RSS volunteers helped in relief work during the 2013 Uttarakhand floods.

You can read the full story here.

5. Morphed Screenshot of OpIndia Article on Greta Thunberg Goes Viral

A morphed screenshot of an article, purportedly published by right-wing website OpIndia, had gone viral with a claim that the website said that Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg was born into a Muslim family and was later adopted.

Thunberg was in news recently after she spoke out in support of the ongoing farmers’ protest against the three new farm laws introduced by the Centre.

An archive of the post can be found here.

We found that the screenshot of the article was an edited one as it didn’t match the layout of OpIndia’s website.

We also found that one of the images in the screenshot showing Thunberg in a hijab was also morphed and was first published on a satire website.

Comparison of photo from Pixabay (L) and morphed photo (R). 

You can read the full story here.

6. Caralisa Monteiro’s Fake Tweet on ‘Hindu Mukt’ India Goes Viral

The screenshot of a tweet calling for a ‘Hindu Mukt India’ had gone viral with a claim that it was tweeted by Bollywood singer and activist Caralisa Monteiro.

An archive of the post can be found here.

However, we compared the viral tweet with an original tweet from Monterio's account and found that the screenshot had been morphed.

Upon comparison, we found that there were two errors in the viral tweet. The viral tweet didn’t have the number of interactions – Retweets, Quote Tweets and Likes. The second error was seen in the top-right corner. The ‘more’ option present in the viral image was a downward arrow but in the original tweet had three dots.

Comparison of the viral tweet with original tweet on the desktop version.

You can read the full story here.

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