An image claiming to show Sri Lanka issued a postage stamp featuring Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is fake and photoshopped.
The Rs 10 Sri Lankan stamp has 'Colombo' inscribed on it with Vijayan's photo and 2017 mentioned as the year it was released. In the viral post, the image of the stamp is hosted on the website SL Post Stamps under the Philatelic Bureau of Sri Lanka.
The caption with which it is being shared reads, "Sri Lanka Government released a postal Stamp honoring Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Congratulations !"
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
The text on the image translated from Malayalam reads, "Shri Pinarayi Vijayan - Postage stamp with the image of Pinarayi Vijayan released This is the first time the Sri Lankan government has paid tribute to Pinarayi Vijayan. Congratulations to Kerala's Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan"
(In Malayalam - ശ്രീ പിണറായി വിജയന് - ശ്രീലങ്കൻ സർക്കാരിന്റെ ആദരം - പിണറായി വിജയൻറെ ചിത്രം പതിപ്പിച്ച പോസ്റ്റൽ സ്റ്റാമ്പ് ഇറക്കിയാണ് | ശ്രീലങ്കൻ സർക്കാർ പിണറായി വിജയനോടുള്ള ആദരം പ്രകടിപ്പിച്ചത് ഇതാദ്യമായാണ് ശ്രീലങ്കൻ സർക്കാർ ഒരുമലയാളിയുടെ | പേരിൽ സ്റ്റാമ്പ് ഇറക്കുന്നത് കേരളത്തിന്റെ അഭിമാനമായ മുഖ്യമന്ത്രി പിണറായി വിജയന് ആശംസകൾ)
Viral on Facebook
On searching with the same caption, we found other posts with the false claim.
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
Also Read: 2018 Photo Of Kerala CM Sitting In Candlelight Peddled As Recent
FACT-CHECK
We searched on - stamps.slpost.gov.lk, which is the Philatelic Bureau, Department of Posts, Sri Lanka website mentioned on the viral post and did not find any stamp released in 2017 with the image of Pinarayi Vijayan.
On the left-hand corner of the viral stamp, the bird blue magpie is written which is odd for stamps featuring images of people. On searching, we found other old Sri Lankan postal stamps with the bird's image and name at the left hand corner of the stamp.
Anti Fake News Division, under the Information And Public Relations Department of the Government of Kerala also confirmed that the viral graphic is fake.
Additionally, we did not find any news reports on searching for news on the Department of Posts, Sri Lanka issuing a stamp honouring the Kerala chief minister.
Fake stamp viral since 2018
We found that the same viral image has been circulating online since 2018 falsely claiming that Vijayan was honoured with a national stamp by Sri Lanka.
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
BOOM reached out to the Department of Posts, Sri Lanka, for a response, the article will be updated upon receiving a response.
