Rahul Gandhi's photos splashed across Dubai? No, these are digital creations - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
11th January 2019 / 9:13 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019
With Congress President Rahul Gandhi on a two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Congress leaders and supporters on social media have gone overboard in their projection of his supposed popularity.
Rahul Gandhi’s poster is seen plastered on the back of a bus, and has been shared on social media.
Dubai is all set to listen the beloved leader @RahulGandhi. He will be talking to Indian Diaspora and Students on his two day visit. #RahulGandhiInUAE #RGinUAE pic.twitter.com/OJA9a8xrlY
— Khursheed Ahmed 🇮🇳 (@KhursheedAhmedA) January 11, 2019
Moreover, a set of images shared on social media shows Gandhi splashed on billboards across Dubai.
Dubai is all set to listen the beloved leader @RahulGandhi on his two day visit. #RahulGandhiInUAE #RGinUAE pic.twitter.com/uDob7Qpuyi
— Lalit Nagar (@lalitnagarmla) January 11, 2019
The above tweet is by Lalit Nagar, who is General Secretary of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC). It has been tweeted on January 11, the day Gandhi arrived in Dubai. Another tweet of January 3 by Rukshmani Kumari, member of Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee, shows Rahul Gandhi on a massive billboard with the words RG@UAE.
#RGinUAE on 11th January at –#Dubai International Cricket Stadium. @RahulGandhi pic.twitter.com/MTgOBbs7Sv
— Rukshmani kumari (@KumariRukshmani) January 3, 2019
Photofunia is a photo editing website with a large collection of templates for representing photographs in an interesting and unique manner. Among the various templates or ‘effects’ as the website calls it, is the ‘billboard’ effect. Here, photographs of individuals can be superimposed on the template to create an impression of presence on a billboard.
The above image has been created using the City Billboard effect, while the image posted below has been conjured using another effect, Billboards at Night.
Insofar as the image of Gandhi’s poster on the bus is concerned, Alt News used Yandex and came across the original image on a blog called The Purple Journal. The image is indeed of a bus in Dubai, but there is no Rahul Gandhi poster on the back windshield.
These images were earlier debunked by Boom Live. Earlier, a digitally created video was shared widely by Congress supporters on social media to show how Rahul Gandhi’s image had been beamed on the Burj Khalifa.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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