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| - Fact Check: Decade-old Nigerian photo FALSELY shared as Bharat Jodo Yatra scene
AFWA's investigation has found that a photo that has been shared as Bharat Jodo Yatra's photo was not from India at all — it's from Nigeria and has been on the internet since 2010.
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India Today Fact Check
This photo is at least 12 years old and from Nigeria. Reportedly, it is from a Christian rally organised by famous German-American evangelist Reinhard Bonnke.
As Rahul Gandhi and the Bharat Jodo Yatra continued to make their way through Karnataka, on October 15, the Congress party organised a rally in the Ballari district where the Yatra completed the 1000-km mark. Following this, many on social media shared a bird’s-eye view photo of a massive gathering, claiming it was from the same rally.
The photo shows a sea of people and was shared with captions like "A shot from Bellary rally during Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra. Historic, wonderful and unimaginable!"
Strangely enough, the same photo was tweeted by many claiming that it was from an Aam Aadmi Party rally in Gujarat.
AFWA's investigation, however, found that this photo was not from India at all — it’s from Nigeria and has been on the internet since 2010.
AFWA Probe
A reverse search of the viral image led us to the German website Jesus.de. There, we found a similar-looking photo of a huge crowd. This photo, a larger frame than the viral one, was accompanied by an article published on December 9, 2019, that reported the death of Reinhard Bonnke, a German-American evangelist who converted more than 79 million people to Christianity in Africa.
When we compared the pattern of the crowd and other details of the two photos, we noticed several similarities and concluded they were the same. The comparison can be seen below.
The website Jesus.de claimed that the photo in question showed one of the largest gatherings in Africa during a Bonnke speech. However, there was no mention of any specific details. Given that the picture was shared in 2019, however, it is more than evident that it had nothing to do with the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Subsequent refined searches and a reverse search on Tin Eye helped us find the photo in another article published in February 2010. It noted this gathering was a Christian evangelist event from Nigeria.
A BBC report mentioned Reinhard Bonnke founded an organisation called “Christ for all Nations”. We visited its website and found an archived version of the same photo from 2014. It mentioned that this photo was shot in Ogbomosho, Nigeria.
So, while it is difficult to pinpoint an exact date to the photograph, we are more than certain that the image is at least 12 years old, and from Nigeria.
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