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| - Fact Check: Old AND photoshopped! This photo doesn't show INDIA rally in Patna
India Today Fact Check found that this photo is old and shows a different Rashtriya Janata Dal rally. it's also been digitally altered to show a bigger crowd.
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India Today Fact Check
Not only is this photo old — it’s from a 2017 rally — it’s also been edited to make the crowd bigger.
In Short
- INDIA bloc leaders took part in Jan Vishwas Maharally on March 3
- Viral photo claims over 12 lakh people took part in rally
- Fact Check team found the photo is old and digitally altered
On March 3, INDIA bloc leaders including the Congress party’s Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav, and the Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav converged in Bihar’s capital Patna for the Jan Vishwas Maharally. In its aftermath, many shared a photo of the sea of people who arrived to watch the leaders speak.
On X, one person wrote: “Tsunami of crowd at the iconic Gandhi Maidan in Patna. Over 12 lakh people joined the historic rally today.”
India Today Fact Check found that this photo is old and shows a different Rashtriya Janata Dal rally. it’s also been digitally altered to show a bigger crowd.
OUR PROBE
A reverse search of the photo led us to a Financial Express photo gallery from August 27, 2017, titled “Unprecedented gathering at BJP Bhagao, Desh Bachao rally at Gandhi Maidan of Patna? Lalu shares pics”. In it, we found the viral photo.
It was captioned, “Lalu Prasad Yadav rally in Patna: In a show of strength against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a friend turned foe Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav is holding a rally at iconic Gandhi Maidan today. Prominent oppositions like West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav were a part of this event. Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan witnessed a historic moment after lakhs of people gathered at the venue.”
The caption, however, also noted that “there are several tweets doing the rounds claiming that the image tweeted by RJD chief Lalu was Photoshopped,” and that the Financial Express “doesn't vouch for the authenticity of the pictures”.
Subsequent searches led us to other articles about the photo being digitally retouched. India TV’s report noted that the news agency ANI first pointed out the discrepancy in the image shared by Lalu Prasad Yadav. ANI also shared other photos captured “from the same point where Lalu Prasad Yadav's purported picture was taken”, noting that “crowd sizes are different”.
Further searches led us to the photo that was digitally edited to make the crowd bigger. It was part of a Jansatta report on the August 2017 RJD rally. It was also shared on social media by a few people around the same time.
A comparison of this photo and the viral one makes it clear that it was indeed edited.
Thus, while the recent Patna rally reportedly saw a sizable crowd, it’s clear that the viral photo is not just old but also edited. Notably, another photo from the same August 2017 rally has also been shared widely as sights from the Jan Vishwas Maharally. Here’s Aaj Tak’s fact-check of that.
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