A morphed photo showing the image of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and his wife Savita Ambedkar running across the length of a bus is viral on social media with false captions claiming that this is a mark of respect shown for Ambedkar in Colombia, America.
BOOM found that the viral photo shared on social media is doctored and the photo of Ambedkar and his wife has been morphed over the original photograph showing a bus in Bath, England. We did not come across any news article about buses running on the streets of Columbia with pictures of Ambedkar and his wife on it.
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It's noteworthy that Columbia University (New York), Ambedkar's Alma mater, has honored him in the past. The university has included his autobiography Waiting For A Visa in its curriculum.
A Hindi caption with the viral image translates to 'Baba Saheb's picture on the city bus plying on the streets of Columbia (America). This is real honor, America still considers Baba Saheb as its ideal because America's economy is based on the same book that Baba Saheb wrote for his doctoral thesis in British times...'.
(Hindi: कोलंबिया (अमेरिका) की सड़कों पर दौड़ती सिटी बस पर बाबा साहब का चित्र यह असली सम्मान है, अमेरिका आज भी बाबा साहब को अपना आदर्श मानता है क्योंकि अमेरिका की अर्थव्यवस्था उसी पुस्तक पर आधारित है जिसे बाबा साहब ने ब्रिटिश काल में अपनी डाक्टर की डिग्री के लिए यिसिस के रूप में लिखा था (Sic) |)
View the post below and check its archived version here.
BOOM also got the same image on its helpline number for checking its veracity.
The claim with the same morphed photo has been shared from several Twitter handles as well. See here and here.
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Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse image search on the viral photograph and found several websites sharing the same picture but without the photo of Ambedkar and his wife. Wikimedia Commons was one such page which has the original photograph of the bus.
The description with the photograph captured on July 28, 2008, in Bath, England reads 'English: City Sightseeing's 273 (EU05 VBJ), a Volvo B7L/Ayats Bravo City, in Bath, Somerset, England. Unlike many City Sigthseeing tours which are run under frachicse to other operators, this one is run directly by the company themseleves. (Sic)'.
The photo has been credited to Adrian Pingstone.
BOOM also compared the viral and original pictures and found them to be one and the same, except for the morphed image of Ambedkar and his wife. The alignments in the viral photo is clearly visible to be overlapping in the original.
Check below the comparison.
BOOM also searched the internet for any such report about buses with Ambedkar and his wife's photo plying on the streets of Columbia/Colombia but found none.
We also found the image of Ambedkar and his wife Savita Ambedkar that has been edited and morphed on the photo of the bus.
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