Edited photo falsely shared as an AAP Gujarat campaign banner that says - ‘Gujarat will read namaz’ - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 14, 2021
A photo is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) campaign banner in Gujarat. The post claims that the banner reads – ‘Gujarat padega namaz’ (Gujarat will read namaz) and ‘Bhagwat saptah aur Satyanarayan katha/puja jaisi faltu pratha chhodo’ (Leave the useless Bhagawat week and Satyanarayan puja), in Gujarati. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of an AAP campaign banner in Gujarat which reads – ‘Gujarat will read namaz’.
Fact: The posted photo is an edited one. On comparing with the other similar banners, it can be seen that the text – ‘Now Gujarat will change’ (in Gujarati) has been replaced with ‘Gujarat will read namaz’, and the empty space has been filled with the text – ‘Bhagwat saptah aur Satyanarayan katha/puja jaisi faltu pratha chhodo’. Also, the photo of Gopal Italia (President, Aam Aadmi Party – Gujarat) on the posted banner has been edited. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the posted photo was run through Google Reverse Image Search, it was found that ‘AAP Gujarat’ has already clarified that the viral photo is fake as it has been edited. Yogesh Jadvani, a spokesperson of AAP Gujarat, has tweeted the original poster design on his account after the edited image went viral. It can be seen that the text – ‘Now Gujarat will change’ (in Gujarati) has been replaced with ‘Gujarat will read namaz’, and the empty space has been filled with the text – ‘Bhagwat saptah aur Satyanarayan katha/puja jaisi faltu pratha chhodo’.
Except for the posted viral photo (which has been edited), none of the other similar banner photos on social media had such religious hate text as claimed in the post. Some of the banners from various other locations can be seen here, here, here, and here. It can also be noticed that the photo of Gopal Italia (President, Aam Aadmi Party – Gujarat) on the posted banner has been edited (with the photo of Mullah Krekar).
To sum it up, an edited photo is falsely shared as an AAP Gujarat campaign banner saying – ‘Gujarat will read namaz’.