Viral Photo Of A Dainik Bhaskar Hoarding Targeting BJP Is Fake

A viral image claiming to show a hoarding of Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar taking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh, is morphed and fake.

BOOM found that the image has been morphed over another hoarding and shared with the viral claim.

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On July 22, the Income Tax department conducted searches on the premises of Dainik Bhaskar Group office across India for alleged tax evasion. According to an Indian Express report, the IT department had conducted searches at residential and office premises of the group's promoters across 32 locations in Delhi, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

The Dainik Bhaskar team meanwhile posted a message on its website claiming that the raids are retaliation against the group for their critical coverage of the centre's handling of the pandemic particularly the deadly second wave. The Hindi daily also tweeted about the same. Read here, here and here.

Following the IT raids on the DB Group premises, social media was flooded with messages in support of the media group for its 'courageous' journalism. Meanwhile, several Twitter users also dug up old pictures of hoardings displayed by Dainik Bhaskar targeting political parties - mainly the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party - in Uttar Pradesh.

The viral post has been shared against this backdrop.

The image shows an alleged hoarding of Dainik Bhaskar with a Hindi slogan which translates to 'Neither a monk, nor a boastful saint'. A Hindi caption with the viral post translates to 'The oppressive government tried to thwart Dainik Bhaskar's voice, what Dainik Bhaskar did after is it in front of you'.

(Hindi: ना मठ का महंत ना फेंकू संत)

(Hindi: 'दमनकारी सरकार' ने 'दैनिक भाष्कर' की आवाज़ दबाने की कोशिश की, फिर जो दैनिक भाष्कर ने किया वह आपके सामने है)

It is noteworthy that UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath is the head priest (mahant) of the Gorakhnath Math in Gorakhpur.

The image has been shared from several Facebook pages and Twitter handles with similar captions.

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Fact Check

The bottom left corner of the viral post has a logo of 'Yogi Jhootha Hai ''योगी झूठा है'. We did a keyword search with the words and found a Facebook page and an Instagram handle with the same name.

BOOM found the same image shared from the Facebook page योगी झूठा है on July 22 with a Hindi caption which transaltes to 'The oppressive government tried to thwart Dainik Bhaskar's voice, what Dainik Bhaskar would want to do next is before you'.

(Hindi: 'दमनकारी सरकार' ने 'दैनिक भाष्कर' की आवाज़ दबाने की कोशिश की, फिर जो दैनिक भाष्कर करना चाहेगा वह आपके सामने है)

However, the post on this Facebook page has been shared with a caption suggesting the photo is not real.

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The same picture was shared from its Instagram handle.

BOOM also did a reverse image search to check if Bhaskar had used the slogan on any of its display hoardings but we could find none.

We did find other Dainik Bhaskar hoardings with captions targeting opposition parties SP and BSP.

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We did find another hoarding that might have been morphed to create the viral post. Click here to check the hoarding.

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