False claim about Kejriwal wearing shoes at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Memorial viral on social media

A photograph of Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party and Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal is viral on social media. In the photograph, everyone around Arvind Kejriwal, including CM Bhagwant Mann are seen walking barefooted while Kejriwal can be seen in shoes.

The photo is accompanied by a Hindi caption that claims that Arvind Kejriwal was wearing shoes at Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s Memorial.

This was shared on Twitter by various BJP workers and sympathisers.

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The claim is also viral on Facebook with the same Hindi caption.

Fact-check

We performed a Google reverse image search on the image and came across a news report by Dainik Jagran from March 14, which had the viral photo as a file image. As per the report, both Kejriwal and Mann had visited Darbar Sahib to pay obeisance to god for the massive victory in elections.

We checked the official Facebook page of Arvind Kejriwal and came across a post from March 13, which said that he and Mann had paid their respects at “Shri Darbar Sahib, at Shri Ram Teerth Temple and Durgiana Temple and offered flowers at Jallianwala Bagh Shaheed Memorial”.

Using Google Lens, we performed a reverse image search on one of the photos posted by Kejriwal, which helped us identify the location as the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial based on a news article by The Tribune.

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Taking this as a clue we performed a keyword search on YouTube and found various video reports of Kejriwal’s visit to the memorial.

We also found the structure seen in the viral image in a report by News18 Punjab/Haryana/Himachal. The structure appears at 2:10 minutes. This confirms that the viral image was clicked at the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial.

We also checked a video report by ANI where it is clearly visible that Kejriwal is not wearing shoes when he reaches the platform of the memorial. Moreover, in the video report by News18 Punjab/Haryana/Himachal, you can see Kejriwal stops for a second at 0:10 seconds, this is when he takes his shoes off before approaching the main platform of the memorial. The viral photo in circulation was clicked before he had taken his shoes off.

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In the video report by ANI, it is very clearly visible that multiple folks, including the security, had not taken their shoes off before approaching the main platform. But when they approach the main platform of the memorial, even the security there can be seen barefooted.

Was Kejriwal present at the Bhagat Singh Memorial?

We found a video on the official Facebook page of the Aam Aadmi Party from March 16 where Kejriwal and Mann could be seen paying tribute to Shaheed Bhagat Singh.

The clothes seen in the video don’t match the ones seen in the viral image. More importantly, Kejriwal was not wearing his shoes while paying tribute to Bhagat Singh.

To conclude, a photo that was clicked during Kejriwal’s visit to the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial was falsely shared as a photo from his visit to the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Memorial. Kejriwal had removed his shoes during both visits.