BJP Leader Shares Old Image From Punjab As Flooding in Delhi

An old image from Mansa, Punjab was falsely shared as a flooded street in Kirari Ward of Delhi.

The image is actually from Mansa, Punjab.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An image of a family having tea and snacks in the middle of a flooded street has gone viral on social media. The posts claim that the image is from Delhi, due to the recent heavy rains. However, we found out that it's actually an old photo from Mansa district in Punjab.

CLAIM

The viral image was shared by the Twitter handle of Ravinder Gupta (@guptaravinder71), the General Secretary of BJP Delhi and ex-mayor of North Delhi.

The tweet said, "#दिल्ली के मुख्यमंत्री @ArvindKejriwal जी का दिल से धन्यवाद जिन्होंने #किराड़ी विधानसभा को #लंदन बना दिया। यह देखिए किस प्रकार एक पूरा परिवार #लंदन की गली में बैठकर " गरमा गरम चाय" और बिस्कुट का आनंद ले रहे है #केजरीवाल जी इससे अच्छे दिन मत दिखाना" |

When translated to English, the message reads, “A heartfelt thanks to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ji who turned the Kirari Assembly into London. See how a whole family is sitting in the London street enjoying “hot hot tea” and biscuits. Kejriwal ji do not show better days than this.”

An archived version of the tweet can be found here. 

The tweet was also shared by Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa), the national spokesperson of Akali Dal and ex-MLA of Delhi, along with several other social media users.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here. 

An archived version of the tweet can be found here. 

An archived version of the post can be found here.

The image is also being circulated on social media with the claim that it's from the city of Surat.

An archived version of the post can be found here. 

An archived version of the tweet can be found here. 

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

The image is old and is neither from Delhi nor Surat. It’s actually from the Mansa district of Punjab, when it was flooded in 2016.

A reverse image search led us to a tweet by Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer (@meet_hayer), AAP’s MLA from Barnala Constituency in Punjab. Hayer had tweeted the image on 18 July 2016, stating that it was of a family from Mansa, Punjab, protesting against the “shoddy sewage work by akalis.”

An archived version of the tweet can be found here. 

A Twitter user had also replied to Hayer’s tweets with a screenshot of a Punjab Kesari report with the same image.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here. 

Further search also led us to the original 2016 Facebook post by user, Subhash Sachdeva.

An archived version of the post can be found here. 

The Quint got in touch with a local reporter from Mansa who corroborated that the incident took place in 2016. The family had reportedly found a new way to protest due to the lack of government response to the annual flooding of their homes during heavy rains.

While the viral image is shared out of context, the social media messages may have been prompted by the recent reports of flooding in the Kirari ward of Delhi.

(With inputs from SM HoaxSlayer)

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