This photo shows a Bangladeshi man, not a crying general category UPSC aspirant from Lucknow - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 7, 2021
A photo of a crying man is being shared on social media with a claim that he is 29-year-old Rajesh Tiwari from Lucknow who failed to clear this year’s UPSC Civil Services Examination. It is also being claimed that he got 643 marks whereas the cut-off for the general category was 689. The post blames reservation for his plight as he belongs to the general category and the cut-off for SC/ST was only 601. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of crying Rajesh Tiwari from Lucknow who could not clear the UPSC exam due to reservation.
Fact: The man in the photo belongs to Bangladesh. His name is Sayeed Rimon, not Rajesh Tiwari. He is a social media influencer and promotes social awareness in Bangladesh. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the photo was run through Yandex Reverse Image Search, the same photo was found in an article published by a Bangladesh website in 2019. In the article, it is written that the person in the photo is Sayeed Rimon, who tries to bring social awareness among the public through his photos. He is a Bangladeshi, not Indian. On his Facebook profile, Sayeed Rimon has described himself as – ‘Textile Engineer | Social Awareness Promoter | Social Influencer’. He posted the same photo on his profile in 2016 and on his page in 2017.
Also, it was found that the same message, with the story of UPSC aspirant Rajesh Tiwari, is being shared on social media at least since 2017.
On the UPSC website, the cut-off marks of the Civil Services Examination for the years 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 can be seen. While it is true that the cut-off is higher for the general category, none of those numbers (2016-19) match with the numbers given in the post.
To sum it up, an unrelated photo from Bangladesh shared as a UPSC aspirant crying after failing to clear the cut-off due to reservation.