Image Showing WB Governor In An RSS Uniform Is Morphed

BOOM found that Dhankhar's face has been morphed to be included in the photograph, which is at least six years old.

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The now deleted image was tweeted by a Trinamool Congress supporters' handle, Mamata Banerjee Supporters, which is followed by TMC spokesperson Derek O' Brien among other verified handles. The caption of the tweet accused Dhankhar of being faithful towards the BJP and traced it to his RSS alliance. The text reads, ".@jdhankhar1, another proof which clearly depicts that you are a faithful stooge of BJP RSS..This is the reason you always speaks against WB Govt.. (Pic collected)"

The tweet is archived here, a screenshot of the tweet is added below.

Ties between Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal chief minister and Dhankhar have hit rock bottom after a bitter exchange of letters between the two last week. Dhankhar raised allegations against Banerjee and accused her of not taking proper steps to tackle the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in a 13-page letter. Dhankhar questioned the figures of death and positive COVID-19 cases in West Bengal. The state has reported around 800 COVID-19 cases and 33 deaths so far.

Mamata Banerjee refuted with a letter stating that it was unnecessary of the governor to interfere in federal rights of the elected government.

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Fact Check

Upon doing a reverse image search BOOM found that the image has been morphed and Bhagwat was not accompanied by Dhankhar in the original image.

We found a BBC news article, with the headline, "Why India's Hindu nationalists are shedding their shorts". The article published on November 5, 2015, featured the same image and credited it to international news agency Reuters. The photograph was taken at an RSS event in Agra, in 2014.

The original image could be traced to Reuters image archive. The caption of the image reads, "Mohan Bhagwat (3rd L), chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India's Hindu nationalist organisation, walks after addressing the RSS volunteers during a training camp in the northern Indian city of Agra November 3, 2014." The image was clicked by photojournalist Brijesh Singh in Agra, Uttar Pradesh on November 3, 2014.

You can see the original mage here.

A comparison of the fake and original image is given below.

Banerjee in the past has accused Dhankhar of being an 'RSS man'. In an interview to News 18 last year, Dhankhar cleared the air about his stand on the Hindu nationalist organisation and his 'regret for not enrolling in the organisation in the past.'

He was quoted as saying, "I am not an RSS man. But I have no hesitation in saying I would be happy to be one. Because they [RSS] believe in nationalism. It is one of the greatest organisations the world has ever seen. And I think there is a void in my life that I am not an RSS man. But her accusation of this fact is wrong. That should not have happened."

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