A morphed image of union home minister Amit Shah with Asaduddin Owaisi, president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is viral with claims that the latter has joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the state assembly elections.
BOOM found that the image is a combination of two separate images of Shah and Owaisi and edited into a picture; the image is doing the rounds with a narrative that discourages Muslims from voting for the AIMIM.
The image shows Amit Shah sitting with Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi in a room.
The image is viral with several misleading captions. One such caption reads, "What style, I repeat what style" (Original text in Hindi: ''क्या नज़ाकत अजी क्या नज़ाकत''')
Archive of the post can be seen here.
It is also viral with an English caption that reads, ''Owaisi BJP ka B TEAM hai musalmanon kA OVTE. OWAISI. Ko Na do Hindustan Achcha rahega ''
Archive of such posts can be seen here and here.
It has been further shared with a Bangla caption which reads, "The picture speaks. If you look at the picture, you can understand which path you are symbolising. Especially to my minority brothers. Special request. Decide to walk the path by looking at the pictures. Joy Bangla."
(Original text in Bangla: "ছবি কথা বলে। ছবি দেখলেই বোঝা যায় তুমি কোন পথের প্রতীক।বিশেষ করে আমার সংখ্যালঘু ভাইদের কাছে বিশেষ অনুরোধ ছবি দেখে পথ চলার সিদ্ধান্ত নেবেন। জয় বাংলা")
Archive can be seen here.
Below is a screenshot of the image shared on Twitter with a similar narrative.
Also read: Misleading Screengrab Claims Amit Shah Disrespected President Kovind
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search and found a February 28, 2018 report on The News Minute, that carried an image of Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi sitting in the same couch as seen in the viral image. In the original image, an official from the Telangana is seen sitting in place where Amit Shah's image has been morphed and inserted. According to the report, Owaisis met some officials of the Telangana government as Hyderabad MPs where they urged the government to build a bridge over the Musi river.
We also found the same image along with other pictures from the meeting on Asaduddin Owaisi's official Facebook profile. The caption of the post reads, "AIMIM President Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi along with Floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi met Principal Secretary MA&UD Mr Arvind Kumar, commissioner GHMC Janardhan Reddy and given memorandum for construction of new bridges adjacent to Nayapul to accommodate street vendors and hawkers of surroundings of Charminar."
BOOM further cropped the part of the image showing Amit Shah sitting on a chair and ran a reverse image search on it. We found the original image of Amit Shah with Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh from September 3, 2019. Singh has tweeted the image when he met the union home minister in New Delhi to discuss various issues related to Punjab.
We could ascertain that the two images have been edited into the viral image. Comparing the viral image with the original images of Amit Shah and Owaisi, we found that Amit Shah's image has been cropped, flipped and edited into the picture of Asaduddin and Akbaruddin Owaisi.
Such a comparison can be seen below.
Also read: Photo Of Amit Shah Greeting Asaduddin Owaisi Is Morphed
