| schema:text
| - Fact Check: Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah didn't do this. It's his lookalike!
Did former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah insult Lord Ram in public to appease minorities? The India Today Fact Check team found this claim to be false.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
Neither is the man in the picture Siddaramaiah nor is it a Congress rally. It is a picture from the protest march of a fringe Periyarist group.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah insults Lord Ram in public by slapping his picture with slippers to appease minorities? That's pretty outrageous, and the furious reaction to it is on expected lines. But, this claim is far from truth.
Legions of Facebook users are raging against Congress' Siddaramaiah - 4,000 at last count - for 'beating' pictures of Lord Ram during a rally. The social media post with the incriminating picture carries a message in Hindi that translates to: "To demean Hindus, Congress CM Siddaramaiah took out a rally beating Lord Ram's pictures with slippers. This is just to appease Christians and Muslims. Share this to reveal the real face of the Congress party."
This post has been shared by a Facebook user called Devender Chauhan who claims to be working with the Bharatiya Janata Party. This photo was sent out in a group titled 'Namo Fan' which has half a million followers.
The photo has also been shared by a Facebook user named Rashmi Bipin Nirala in a group called 'BJP Social Media', where it has been shared more than 1,500 times.
The picture in question shows policemen standing casually amid a crowd, with 'Siddaramaiah' in the centre of this motley group, some of who are holding up footwear to calendar-type images of Lord Ram.
It is unlikely for the former CM to be accompanied by such a bunch of people. Some of the billboards visible in the picture are in Tamil, indicating that it must have been clicked in a town or city somewhere in Tamil Nadu.
Users are writing hate messages against the senior Congress leader.
The India Today Fact Check team found this claim to be false. Neither the man in the picture is Siddaramaiah, nor is it a Congress rally. It is a picture from the protest march of a fringe Periyarist group.
When we reverse searched the image, we found an article with headline "Lord Ram insulted with slippers in Tamil Nadu by Periyar groups".
The article mentions that members of the fringe Periyarist group desecrated pictures of Lord Ram by slapping them with slippers in Mayiladuthurai district of Tamil Nadu. This was done in response to the breaking of a Periyar statue in Pudukkottai. Twitter user Ramesh Sethu posted this video on March 21, 2018.
This is how DK guys insult our god and incite violence by hurting religious sentiments.
Time @CMOTamilNadu acts and put these guys behind bars on Goondas act pic.twitter.com/9CuCHInqoi Ramesh Sethu (@rameshsethu) March 21, 2018
Earlier, photos from the same rally were shared with another misleading claim "Keralites Beating Lord Ram pictures with slippers". This claim was debunked by Hoaxorfact.com two months ago.
During the recent Karnataka Assembly polls, a viral video claimed that the Karnataka chief minister was dancing to a Kannada song. India Today debunked this claim and revealed that the dancer was a Siddaramaiah lookalike. The latest social media stunt has also employed a lookalike to target the real Siddaramaiah.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)