Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
Viral photo shows Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis as karsevaks on the day of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.
Fact
Photo dates back to 2002 and shows senior BJP leader from Nagpur, Bhojraj Dumbe, with Fadnavis during a protest against MSEB over load-shedding, and not Eknath Shinde.
Amid the stalemate over the Maharashtra chief minister’s post from the Mahayuti (BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP) alliance after they swept the state elections, a seemingly old photo, purportedly showing Sena’s Eknath Shinde and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, has gone viral across social media platforms. Several users have shared the photo, claiming that it shows the duo, who are at the centre of the deadlock over the CM post, as karsevaks on the day of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.
The archived version of the post can be seen here, which has clocked 834.8K views so far.
Fact Check
Newschecker ran a reverse image search, which led us to this Maharashtra Times news report, dated May 3, 2022, sharing the same photo. According to the report, Shiv Sena MLC Ambadas Danve had posted the photo from an old agitation on Facebook to mock Devendra Fadnavis after he had alleged that not a single Shiv Sainik was in Ayodhya when Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992. A similar Loksatta report, dated May 3, 2022, can be seen here, which, too, did not state that the photo was from 1992, but allegedly of Fadnavis running when lathi-charged during an agitation. None of the reports stated that the man running beside Fadnavis was Eknath Shinde.
Newschecker reached out to Shashank Dabholkar, secretary to Fadnavis, who rubbished the viral claim and said the person in the photo, next to Fadnavis, is Bhojraj Dumbe, a senior BJP leader from Nagpur and that the photo was taken during the party’s agitation against load-shedding in Nagpur in 2002.
We then got in touch with Dumbe, currently in-charge of BJP’s Nagpur office and with the party since 1990, who confirmed that it was him in the photo.
“The photo is from a huge protest in Nagpur in 2002. I was the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Nagpur president and Fadnavis was the BJYM Pradesh Mahamantri and a first-time MLA, when we were agitating against the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) over load shedding in the state. The photo was taken when we gheraoed the office of the then MSEB executive officer Prakash Kulkarni in Gaddigodam, Nagpur. Eknath Shinde is not there in the photo,” Dumbe told Newschecker.
Conclusion
2002 photo of BJP leader from Nagpur with Devendra Fadnavis during protest against load-shedding viral as Eknath Shinde and Fadnavis as karsevaks on the day of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.
Result: False
Sources
Maharashtra Times report, May 3, 2022
Conversation with Shashank Dabholkar, secretary to Devendra Fadnavis
Conversation with Bhojraj Dumbe, BJP’s Nagpur office in-charge
(with inputs from Prasad Prabhu, Newschecker Marathi)
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
