Image of mask clad Rahul Gandhi is being shared with a sarcastic claim - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 29, 2021
A post accompanying an image of mask clad Rahul Gandhi sitting alongside women on a dining table is being shared on social media with a sarcastic claim that ‘Rahul Gandhi is the only person who can eat food with mask covering his mouth’. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Rahul Gandhi eating food with his mask on.
Fact: This photo was clicked when mask-clad Rahul Gandhi was talking to women next to him after having lunch in Erode, Tamil Nadu during the election campaign. Rahul Gandhi did not wear a mask during the meal. News videos of his lunch with weavers in Erode are available. Also, multiple news articles published his image without a mask while he is eating. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Reverse image search of the photo in the post led us to a tweet by Tamil Nadu Congress Committee which shared an image similar to the one in the post alongside another set of images in which Rahul Gandhi can be seen without a mask while he is eating.
அன்பும் பண்பும் நிறைந்த தமிழ் மக்களோடு உணவு உண்டது மகிழ்ச்சி அளிக்கிறது.
– தலைவர் ராகுல் காந்தி#ThalaivarRahulGandhi#VaangaOruKaiPaapom pic.twitter.com/hhc1VNvK1E
Google search with relevant keywords led us to a news report by The Hindu which published an image of Rahul Gandhi without any mask while he is eating. As per the article, the image is from Rahul Gandhi’s lunch with weavers in Odanilai during his visit to Erode. Further search led us to few regional and online news articles which published an image of Rahul Gandhi having lunch without his mask on. These articles can be seen here and here. Few noted Tamil Nadu Congress leaders also shared the images of Rahul Gandhi without a mask, these can be seen here and here.
Further YouTube search with relevant keywords led us to a Tamil regional news video which published the video footage of Rahul Gandhi’s lunch. Even in this video, we can spot Rahul Gandhi without a mask while having  lunch.
To sum it up, the image of mask-clad Rahul Gandhi is being shared with a sarcastic claim that he is eating food with his mask on.