Ben Garrison did not create this cartoon mocking seven years of BJP rule - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 16, 2021
A post accompanying the cartoon of a cow symbolizing BJP, that is seen eating a leaf which symbolizes India is being shared on social media. The cartoon depicts Ambani & Adani milking the cow, whereas the excreta is collected in a container which symbolizes BJP supporters. This cartoon is being widely shared with a claim that it is created by American cartoonist Ben Garrison depicting 7 years of BJP rule. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: American cartoonist Ben Garrison’s cartoon depicting seven years of BJP rule.
Fact: This cartoon is not created by Ben Garrison and is not available on Ben Garrison’s official website. Different versions of this cartoon are available on the internet at least since 2015. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Search on grrrgraphics.com website which is an official repository of Ben Garrison’s work did not yield any results about this cartoon. Ben Garrison has also tweeted in 2017 clarifying that he never drew any cartoons on Indian Politics, and all such cartoons with his signature are fake.
Reverse image search of this photo yielded us multiple social media posts and blog posts which shared different versions of this cartoon mocking BJP and Congress governments. Some of these posts are even six years old. These posts can be seen here and here.
When a different version of the same cartoon allegedly drawn by Ben Garrison targeting the BJP government went viral back in 2019, BOOM, a fact-checking agency reached out to Ben Garrison seeking a clarification regarding the cartoon. BOOM reported that in their correspondence, Ben denied the news that he created the cartoon. Also in their article, BOOM reported that in their correspondence with Amal Mehdi, a Facebook user had admitted that he is the creator of a version of the cartoon mocking the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the BJP government.
To sum it up, Ben Garrison did create this cartoon mocking seven years of BJP rule.