A set of three images is doing the rounds on social media with a claim that it shows a Christian cleric disguised as a farmer and attending the ongoing farmers’ agitation.
However, The Quint found that all the three images are old, date back to 2017 and 2018, and have no relation with the farmers’ protest. Further, the man in the images is Father Jegath Gaspar Raj, founder of non-profit organisation Tamil Maiyam.
CLAIM
The aforementioned images are being shared with a claim in Hindi, which translates to: “Look at the imposter.
Image 1: Christian cleric
Image 2: Preacher
Image 3: Farmer
These people are called ‘Aandolanjeevis’. No matter what the protest is for, you’ll find these people around.”
The images are massively viral on Facebook and Twitter with the same misleading claim. We also received a query regarding the viral images on The Quint’s WhatsApp tipline.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
Let’s look at the viral images one by one to identify the man and find out when the images are from.
IMAGE 1
A reverse image search led us to a YouTube video uploaded by channel ‘Arputhar Yesu TV’ in May 2018 with the caption: ‘Labourer's day Christian Tamil Sermon Father Jegath Kasper Speech on Workers Day 30-04-2018 (sic)’.
The video identified the man as Father Jegath Gaspar, who is associated with Tamil Maiyam organisation.
We spoke to Father Gasper, who confirmed to us that this is indeed him in the image, which is from an event organised in 2018.
IMAGE 2
On reverse searching the viral image, we came across another YouTube video uploaded by ARRA TV in January 2017 which, too, identified the man as Father Jegath Gaspar.
“This image is from a Satsang event organised by the Hindu community in 2017,” Father Gasper told us.
IMAGE 3
We came across an article published by news wire agency ANI in April 2018 that carried the viral image and was titled as ‘Pastors manhandled: Tamil Maiya Organisation blames RSS for atrocities against Christian Community’.
ANI in its report quoted Father Gasper speaking in connection with the manhandling of two pastors in Tamil Nadu.
Father Jegath Gaspar Raj also told that while he supports the farmers’ agitation, he has not attended any protest so far. “All of these images are old,” he said.
Evidently, old and unrelated images of Father Jegath Gaspar Raj — founder of an organisation called Tamil Maiyam are being shared to claim that he is an imposter who pretended to be a farmer at the ongoing agitation against the controversial farm laws.
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