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.
Claim
Congress poster in Kerala reads “If you want to eat beef, vote for Congress”
Fact
The text in the hoarding is mistranslated. There is no mention of beef in the hoarding. It calls to stop killing in the name of food and to move away from “primitive politics”
A picture of a Congress party hoarding in Kerala has gone viral, with social media users claiming that the party sought votes in the state on grounds of beef. Social media users sharing the claim allege that the Malayalam text in the hoarding reads, “If you want to eat beef, then vote for Congress “.
Newschecker has received this claim on our Whatsapp tipline (9999499044), requesting it to be fact checked.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact check
Newschecker analysed the campaign poster and saw that the text in the hoarding did not refer to beef as claimed in the viral post.
The text in Malayalam reads, “I want to know. Killing in the name of food? In this land? In these times? No need for primitive politics.”
We ran a reverse image search of the photo, which led us to an earlier instance of the photo, a clearer version, being tweeted on April 12, 2019. The 2019 Lok Sabha elections were held from April 11, 2019 to May 19, 2019, indicating that viral hoarding was for the Congress’s election campaign in the state.
A translation of the text on the poster, via Google Lens, has been shown below to confirm that the translation being shared by social media users is not accurate..
Newschecker reached out to George Lawrence, private secretary to Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief K Sudhakaran, who confirmed that the poster was from 2019 and that there was no reference to beef in the poster.
Conclusion
Viral post wrongly translates Congress election hoarding in Kerala, claiming that the party asked for votes in the name of beef.
Result: False
Sources
Image analysis
Google Lens translate
Conversation with George Lawrence, private secretary to KPCC chief K Sudhakaran
(Inputs from Sabloo Thomas, Newschecker Malayalam)
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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.
