Viral Photo Claiming Congress Worker Held 'Muslim Rashtra' Poster Is Fake

An image claiming to show Congress workers, led by party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, held a poster in support of a 'Muslim Rashtra' or a Muslim majority country during their anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest at India Gate, is false.

In the image, one of the posters has been photoshopped to falsely claim that the Congress is sitting in protest for a Muslim nation. The text of the morphed poster reads, "Remove CAB. Make this nation a Muslim country." (Original text in Hindi: कैब (CAB) हटाओ इस देश को मुस्लिम राष्ट्र बनाओं).

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led the protest at India Gate, Delhi, against the police crackdown on students of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) on December 16. The students of the varsity were allegedly beaten up for demonstrating against the Citizenship Law on December 15.

The edited image is doing the rounds with the caption: "All the anti-Modi people, open your eyes and read the text circled in red and understand the agenda of Congress and opposition parties. If you will be content with free water and electricity, then Muslim rule will be back." (Caption in Hindi:मोदी विरोधी, गोल घेरे में जो लिखा है, उसे आखं खोल कर पढ़ लो और समझो कि कांग्रेस और विपक्ष दलों का एजेंडा क्या है? मुफ्त बिजली पानी में ही खुश हो कर रह जाओगे तो मुस्लिम राज फिर आ जायेगा।)

BOOM was able to ascertain that the poster in the photograph was edited as no such poster was seen during the demonstrations of the Congress party in India Gate last week.

We compared an image that was uploaded on an unofficial page of Indian Overseas Congress and found that the original poster held by the party worker read as, "not lathis and bullets. But employment (rozgar) and food (roti),".

In the below comparison of images, multiple similarities show that the poster originally read as, "लाठी-गोली नहीं रोज़गार-रोटी दो"

Another photograph, clicked by The Print photojournalist Suraj Singh Bisht, shows the same party leader, holding the original poster (circled in red) .

Below is a clearer shot of the same poster held by Supriya Shrinate, the national spokesperson of the Indian National Congress.

While we could not find the same image that had been morphed, another photograph by United News India, taken from a different angle corroborated the original poster.

Furthermore, we looked up multiple live videos from the protest, which showed similar posters being showcased as part of the agitation.

The posters can be seen at 14 second mark in the below Facebook LIVE that was shot.