CLAIM
The head of Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and a prominent pro-Khalistan voice Gopal Singh Chawla, on Sunday, 30 June, shared a picture of Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu claiming he has donned a turban that looked like Pakistan’s flag.
The image is captioned as ‘This should be sent to India.’
TRUE OR FALSE?
Sidhu was never seen wearing a turban that looked like the Pakistani flag. The image in context is photoshopped.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We did a reverse image search on Yandex that led us to an article published by The Tribune.
The article had used Sidhu’s picture, identical to the one shared by the Pakistani leader. The Tribune’s picture did not have symbols such as ‘star’ and ‘crescent moon’ on the turban.
On 11 May, the Punjab minister had shared a video from his Indore rally amid the 2019 Lok Sabha election on his official Twitter handle. In the video, he can be seen wearing the same outfit.
Consequently, we searched images on Google using keywords ‘navjot sidhu indore rally.’ This search led us to a Hindustan Times article that had used the same image without the symbols used in Pakistan’s flag. The image is attributed to news agency PTI.
Sidhu was among the special guests present at the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's oath taking ceremony in Islamabad in 2018, reported PTI. The Opposition had further attacked Sidhu for hugging Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the swearing-in ceremony.
Sidhu had courted another controversy in November 2018, after Gopal Singh Chawla posted a picture with the Punjab minister on Facebook. However, Sidhu had denied the fact that he knew Chawla.
After reaching India, he told ANI, “There were probably 10,000 pictures taken of and with me (in Pakistan), I don't know who Gopal Chawla is.”
AMARINDER SINGH CONDEMNS SHARING OF MORPHED IMAGE
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh too strongly condemned the sharing of a morphed picture of Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on social media platforms.
Singh also urged people to refrain from sharing the same.
"Strongly condemn the sharing of the morphed image of sherryontop on various social media platforms. Request everyone to refrain from sharing/forwarding such defamatory content without verification," he tweeted.
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(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
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