Edited image shared as Rahul Gandhi wearing a Baba's attire. - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 11, 2022
A post is being shared on social media in which Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is seen wearing a Baba’s attire. He is seen walking alongside Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Sachin Pilot. This post is being shared in the context of Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra (here). Let’s fact-check this image through this article.
Claim: Rahul Gandhi wearing a baba’s attire.
Fact: This image is a morphed version of a photo captured during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. On 3 December 2022, the Congress leader’s Yatra reached Mahudiya Village of Madhya Pradesh. Namdev Das Tyagi, a.k.a. Computer Baba, joined Rahul Gandhi during the walk. The viral photo contains a digitally altered version of the photo taken when Computer Baba met Rahul Gandhi. The Indian National Congress tweeted this image through its official Twitter handle. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
Performing a reverse image search on the viral image led us to a few news articles containing an image similar to the viral post (here and here). This picture, also tweeted by the INC through its official Twitter handle, was taken during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Madhya Pradesh. Reportedly, Namdev Das Tyagi, aka Computer Baba, met Rahul Gandhi on 3 December 2022.
साधू-संतों का आशीर्वाद और जनता का साथ…#BharatJodoYatra लहराते तिरंगों के साथ सफलता के कदम चूमते हुए आगे बढ़ रही है। pic.twitter.com/qnCKVCrofW
Congress leader Digvijay Singh can also be seen in this picture (here). Unlike in the viral image, Sachin Pilot is not seen in this picture. This picture was morphed to create a viral post. Sachin Pilot’s face replaced Rahul Gandhi’s face while a photoshopped version of his head was placed on Computer Baba. One can also see Computer Baba walking along with Rahul Gandhi in this video report by Tribune. The difference between both these images can be seen below.
A basic keyword search also led us to Sachin Pilot’s picture used in the viral photo. You can find this picture here and here, which was captured during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Rajashthan. This picture of Sachin Pilot was flipped and used in the morphed viral image. With all this evidence, we conclude that the image shared in the post is morphed.
To sum up, an edited image is being shared as Rahul Gandhi wearing a Baba’s attire.