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| - Fact Check: Did SAD's Sukhbir Singh Badal seek Gurmeet Ram Rahim's support in assembly polls?
A screen shot stating that Badal hailed Dera Sacha Sauda's chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim during a press conference in Chandigarh on Feb 11 went viral. India Today Anti-Fake News War room found that the viral screenshot was morphed.
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India Today Fact Check
Sukhbir Singh Badal never made such a statement. Rather, he stated that the furlough granted to Baba Ram Rahim was a BJP election stunt. The article appears morphed.
With assembly polls in Punjab scheduled for February 20, social media is abuzz with news, views, and of course, hoaxes surrounding the upcoming event. Of the viral misleading posts, one is a screenshot of a news report.
Several people on social media shared a screengrab of a Punjabi news report that translates to, “Hailing Baba Ram Rahim as the father of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), party President Sukhbir Singh Badal has asked him to support SAD.”
The report states that Badal has hailed Dera Sacha Sauda’s chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim during a press conference in Chandigarh on February 11.
India Today Anti-Fake News War room (AFWA) found that the viral screenshot was morphed. Badal had never made this statement.
Archived versions of posts with similar claims can be seen here and here.
AFWA PROBE
Sukhbir Singh Badal’s Statement
While investigating the claim we first carried out a keyword search to find out if Badal had indeed made any statement on the 21-day furlough granted to Ram Rahim.
Media reports state that while speaking to media in Rupnagar on February 8, Badal termed the furlough granted to Dera Sacha Sauda chief as a Bharatiya Janata Party election stunt.
It therefore seems unlikely that Badal would then resort to making such a statement.
Where was Sukhbir Singh Badal on February 11?
The viral news report clearly states that Badal had praised Ram Rahim and sought his support during a press conference in Chandigarh on February 11. We tried to find out whether any such press conference was held on February 11 in Chandigarh. We conducted another keyword search.
We found a Times of India report that said Badal was on an election campaign on February 11 in Ferozepur. He was in Ferozepur to campaign in favour of party candidate Vardev Singh Noni Mann in Guruharsahai, Joginder Singh Jindu in Ferozepur Rural, and Rohit Kumar Montu Vohra in Ferozepur urban.
To further confirm the claim, we got in touch with Joginder Singh Jindu, the SAD candidate from Ferozepur Rural.
“Sukhbir Singh Badal was in Ferozepur district on February 11. He had attended at least seven programmes and was in the district till around 7:30pm on that day,” Jindu confirmed to India Today.
The possibility of a press conference in Chandigarh on February 11 is thus suspect because Badal was busy campaigning in Ferozepur, around 223 kilometres away from Chandigarh on that day.
This screenshot was morphed
The viral screenshot had no mention of the newspaper that carried this article. We examined the font and style of the report and tried to find out the source for the news report. E found that the style and font matched with the Daily Ajit — a leading Punjabi newspaper.
Although the format of the dateline in the Daily Ajit is almost similar to the viral news report, there’s one major difference. In the dateline, the Daily Ajit doesn't mention the year of publication along the date of publication. But in the viral screenshot, the year is also mentioned. We did not find this report on the Daily Ajit’s epaper dated February 11.
We got in touch with Satnam Singh Manak, the executive editor of the Daily Ajit. “Although the font and style of the screenshot used in the Facebook post is similar to our publication, we have not carried any such article. Second, in the screenshot, the name of the reporter is given. But we have no such reporter in Chandigarh,” Manak told India Today.
Thus, we can conclude that this claim is false. Sukhbir Singh Badal never made such a statement. The screenshot of the newspaper report appears morphed.
(With inputs from Yash Mittal in New Delhi)
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