A viral photo circulating on social media shows the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, supposedly bowing in front of a portrait of Tipu Sultan. Let’s see the truthfulness of this photo through this fact-check.
Claim: A photo of Yogi Adityanath bowing in front of Tipu Sultan’s Portrait.
Fact: This is a digitally morphed image. In the original photo, Yogi Adityanath is seen paying his respects to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, not Tipu Sultan. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
Firstly, we conducted a reverse image search on the viral photo and discovered a similar image posted on Yogi Adityanath’s official verified Facebook page on 29 June 2021. The photo caption indicated the inauguration of a memorial honouring Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
Digging deeper, we sought to understand the context in which the event captured in the original image took place. Our search revealed that in June 2021, then President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, participated in the foundation stone-laying ceremony for the Dr. Ambedkar Memorial in Lucknow. We also discovered photographs of the then President Kovind paying his respects before Dr. Ambedkar’s portrait—identical to the one featured in the image where Yogi Adityanath bowed to Dr. Ambedkar. News reports on this event can be found here, here, and here.
Additionally, we found a photo of this event from a different angle in which Yogi Adityanath is seen bowing in front of Dr. Ambedkar. All of this proves that the portraits on the stage belong to Dr. Ambedkar and not Tipu Sultan.
By comparing the viral image with the original image, it becomes evident that the viral photo is a cropped version of this, in which the image of Tipu Sultan has been digitally added in place of Dr. Ambedkar’s portrait. This manipulation clearly indicates that the photo is morphed and does not show Yogi Adityanath bowing in front of the portrait of Tipu Sultan.
To sum up, this widely circulated photo depicting Yogi Adityanath bowing in front of Tipu Sultan is digitally morphed.
