Former Indian cricketer and Loksabha MP Kirti Azad tweeted a caricature of PM Modi claiming that it was one of TIME magazine’s cover photos. The image is meant to depict a compromised Indian media, acting as the Prime Minister’s mouthpiece. “Waah Modi ji waah One of the most reputed magazines of the world, has this to say about Indian media, how our Prime Minister @narendramodi breast feeds them. Isn’t it true? @abpnewstv @CNNnews18 @IndiaToday @republic @TimesNow @aajtak @ZeeNews etc. @RahulGandhi,” read Azad’s tweet (archive).
A manufactured caricature
If one notices the cartoon carefully, the bottom left side carries the stamp – ‘Mitesh Patel’.
Patel is a Gujarat resident who had created this caricature and was later booked for one such cartoon in 2017. “IP Singh, a BJP leader from Lucknow and a former Uttar Pradesh minister, said one Mitesh Patel posted the cartoon on Twitter on Wednesday and it was retweeted by at least 292 people,” according to March 2, 2017 report by Hindustan Times. The BJP also accused him of being associated with the AAP and Congress.
Patel lifted the cartoon from a 2012 LA Times report by David Horsey. The photo tweeted by Kirti Azad carries the surname ‘Horsey’ and ‘2012 LA Times’ stamp right above Mitesh Patel’s former Twitter username.
Posted below is a screenshot of the article from LA Times titled – “Republican Party suckles at the breast of Big Business.”
The cartoon posted by Kirti Azad was, thus, an old caricature made by Gujarat-resident Mitesh Patel. The caricature was not a TIME magazine cover photo but was published on an LA Times report.
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