A collage of images is being shared on social media claiming it as the visuals of Rahul Gandhi having a meal with a mask on his face. These pictures show two different instances of mask-clad Rahul Gandhi sitting in front of a served meal. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
Claim: Pictures of Rahul Gandhi eating food with a mask on his face.
Fact: The photos shared in the post were taken during two different campaigns by Rahul Gandhi. These photos were shot during Rahul Gandhi’s visit last year to Tamil Nadu’s Erode and from his recent visit to Punjab. These photos were clicked when Rahul Gandhi was about to start or completed eating his meal. Rahul Gandhi did not wear a mask during the meal. Multiple news websites have published photos of these campaign programs where Rahul Gandhi was seen eating food after removing the mask on his face. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Photo-1:
On reverse image search of the photo, it is found that the photo was shot in 2021, during Rahul Gandhi’s lunch with weavers in Erode, Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee tweeted a collage of images of this campaign programme in which Rahul Gandhi was seen eating lunch without a mask on his face. The photo shared in the post was clicked when mask-clad Rahul Gandhi was talking to the woman next to him after having lunch in Erode.
Multiple news websites have published articles reporting this election event of Rahul Gandhi in Erode. They can be seen here and here. All these articles and videos show Rahul Gandhi eating lunch without wearing a mask on his face.
Photo-2:
On reverse image search, it is found that the photo was shot during Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to Punjab’s Golden Temple on 27 January 2022. The Punjab Congress tweeted a photo in which Rahul Gandhi was seen eating langar at Sri Harmandir Sahib (also known as the Golden temple), without a mask on his face. Rahul Gandhi tweeted a video of him having lunch at Sri Harmandir Sahib. This video shows Rahul Gandhi removing his mask before he started eating langar offered in Sri Harmandir Sahib temple.
Several news websites have published photos and videos of Rahul Gandhi, without a mask, eating langar at the Sri Harmandir Sahib temple. They can be seen here, here, and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be confirmed that the photos shared in the post were shot before Rahul Gandhi started eating a meal and after he finished the meal.
To sum it up, images of mask-clad Rahul Gandhi falsely shared with a sarcastic claim that he eats food with his mask on.
