Jesus Christ photo behind Rahul and Sonia Gandhi’s inked selfie? No, false claim by Right Wing

A photograph of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi is circulating on social media. A framed picture is visible on the wall behind them, which BJP leaders, supporters, and Right-Wing influencers claim is of Jesus Christ.

Right-Wing influencer and BJP supporter Roshan Sinha (@MrSinha_) posted this image, claiming that the picture on the wall was of Jesus.

Similarly, Right-Wing influencer Ajit Datta tweeted this image, stating that it depicted Jesus Christ.

BJP supporter Jitendra Pratap Singh also tweeted the image, calling it a picture of Jesus.

Fact Check

Alt News cropped the relevant part of the viral image and performed a reverse image search on Google. Due to the photo being blurry, we could not find any relevant information. We then uploaded it to the Yandex search engine and found a higher resolution version of the image. Searching this version on Google led us to several related articles.

One of these was on the website “Rethinking The Future“, which contained information about the art gallery of Nicholas Roerich and the viral image. According to the site, the image is titled ‘Madonna Oriflamma’, and it was created by Nicholas Roerich in 1932. The painting depicts a peace banner featuring three red dots inside a circle, which is a symbol of the Roerich Pact. The peace flag is associated with the first international conference dedicated to the protection of artistic, scientific, and historical institutions and monuments.

Investigating further, we checked the website of the Nicholas Roerich Museum. According to information on one of its pages, the devastation of World War I and the Russian Revolution led Roerich to realise that each nation’s cultural heritage was essentially a world treasure. He maintained that besides the physical remains of past cultures, the creative activities associated with universities, libraries, hospitals, concert halls, and theatres should be protected from the ravages of war. Roerich understood the need for an international effort and, with the help of international legal experts, crafted a treaty known as the Roerich Pact. The flag with a red circle and three dots is called the Banner of Peace. This pact stipulates that all sites of cultural value should be declared neutral and protected, similar to how hospitals marked with the Red Cross flag are protected to prevent attacks. The painting seen in the viral image is also seen on this page.

To sum it up, the image in question is not of Jesus Christ but rather a painting by Nicholas Roerich titled “Madonna Oriflamma,” created in 1932. The painting features the “Banner of Peace” with three red dots inside a red circle, symbolising the Roerich Pact.