Netizens Fall For Satire Graphic Blaming Congress For Chandrayaan 2 Setback

Several Twitter and Facebook users fell for a photoshopped graphic purporting to show that Hindi news channel ABP News questioned whether the Congress party was responsible for India's setback in the lunar mission program - Chandrayaan 2.

The graphic which includes a picture of news anchor Rubika Liyaquat has text which translates to, "Is Congress responsible for the failure of Chandrayaan2?"

On July 22, 2019, ISRO launched its second lunar exploration mission – dubbed as Chandrayaan-2 – led by Dr. Sivan. On September 7, ISRO made news again after an eventful landing of the Vikram lander – which ended in a deviation from trajectory and loss of communications with the lander.

Facebook page 'With RG' posted the edited graphic with a caption saying: "
The Sycophant is at its peak. " The post has been shared over one thousand times at the time of writing this article.

It has also been shared by Twitter users taking a dig at the channel.

क्या ये टैग लाइन सच है? pic.twitter.com/WhlggA1unt

— Piyush Mishra (@PMLUCKNOW) September 9, 2019

FACT-CHECK

Closer inspection of the image shows it bears a watermark of 'Memerao'. BOOM found the handle @Memerao1 on Twitter. Tweets from the account make it clear that the image has been photoshopped.

My friends from congress are outraging over an edited meme😂

Cc: @rajazzmantra sir https://t.co/2LOFpHKK3x

— Memerao 3.0 (@Memerao1) September 9, 2019

Rubika Liyaquat herself took to Twitter to call out the misleading graphic.

Edited picture पर जब verified account फ़ौरन कूदने लगे तो समझ जाएँ दिमाग़ छुट्टी पर है https://t.co/EExvatfRfl

— Rubika Liyaquat (@RubikaLiyaquat) September 9, 2019