A post is being widely shared on social media claiming that Arvind Kejriwal’s was congratulating the people of Delhi through a hoarding for the installation of new dustbins in Kirti Nagar. According to the image og the hoarding in the viral post, Kejriwal is alleged to be saying , “Congratulations Delhi as 10 new dustbins have been installed in Kirti Nagar Industrial Area”. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Hoarding of Arvind Kejriwal congratulating Delhi for installing 10 dustbins in Kirti Nagar Industrial area.
Fact: The Hoarding is morphed and is not genuine. There are no recent news articles or any credible information about Arvind Kejriwal congratulating people through a hoarding for the installation of 10 dustbins. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the image is observed closely, we found several inconsistencies. One, the ‘Bhadhai Ho Delhi’ title written (in Hindi) on top of the hoarding. The ‘Ho’ part written (in Hindi) looks like it was pasted onto the reflection of light falling on the hoarding. This shows that the text has been digitally added at the top of the image.
Two, the left part of the image. When the left top corner of the supposed hoarding is zoomed in, we can see different shades of blue – the upper region has a darker shade than the lower region. There are also remnants of a previous text on the far left side of the image.
Three, the contrast and sharpness of the text in the image. When the image is zoomed in, the difference in the sharpness between the title, the Delhi Government logo, and the text on the lower half of the hoarding can be seen clearly. This proves that the entire text is not part of the image and has been added digitally.
Four, the alignment of the text. When the hoarding is looked at closely, the text printed on the lower half of the hoarding is not properly aligned to the edge of the border of the hoarding.
When reverse image search is done on the cropped image of Arvind Kejriwal, an article was found with same images of Arvind Kejriwal. The article was titled, ‘After massive COVID-19 mismanagement in Delhi, AAP govt runs full-page advertisements across the country to boost Kejriwal’s image’ and published on 09 July 2021. In the article, the Delhi Government was criticised for carrying full-page ads on newspapers like Times of India. The image of Kejriwal could have been picked up from these ads.
The image of Arvind Kejriwal in the advertisements matches with his image in the alleged hoarding. The design looks identical except the areas where the text has been altered. Further, there are no recent news articles or any credible information that say such hoardings have been put up by the Delhi government.
To sum it up, hoarding showing Kejriwal congratulating Delhi for installation of dustbins is morphed.
