Fact check: Viral cartoon 'Lipstick on a pig' depicting Modi, Indian media is false

Hyderabad: A cartoon with a claim that it is an American cartoonist Ben Garrison's depiction of the state of Indian media today is going viral on the social media. The viral cartoon titled 'Lipstick on a pig' shows piglets feeding on a pig with a face of Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi. The piglets are named after Indian national media such as Aaj Tak, Headlines today, Times Now, Republic TV, India TV, etc.

Several users shared it stating that #American cartoonist Ben Garrison Sees #Indian PM #Modi like lipstick on a pig and #India's #media sucking up to him.

A few shared it with caption 'American Cartoonist BEN GARRISON'S Depiction of the State of Indian Media Today. अमेरिकी कार्टूनिस्ट बेन गैरीसन ने आज भारतीय मीडिया की स्थिति पर निर्भरता व्यक्त की है।'

Archived link of the claim: https://archive.org/details/cartoon_202007

Fact Check:

The claim that the viral image is the cartoon by American Cartoonist Ben Garrison is FALSE.

When searched for Ben Garrison's cartoons, we found a webpage named grrrgraphics, which portrayed the original cartoons by Ben Garrison. https://grrrgraphics.com/.

When searched the website for the cartoon named Lipstick on a pig, we found a cartoon very similar to the viral image. But according to the website, the image depicts Hillary Clinton where we can find the text too that describes why the cartoonist drew the cartoon.

The cartoon by Ben Garrison was published in 2016, as we found a Wordpress link, with the name grrrgraphics on August 3, 2016.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/4ht2g8/lipstick_on_a_pig_ben_garrison_cartoon/

In September 2017, a user asked grrrgraphics on their Twitter account, whether the viral image depicting Indian Prime Minister Modi and Indian media is true.

Ben Garrison himself replied to this query in October, 2017, stating 'I have never drawn any cartoon on Indian politics, there are some cartoons with my sig going around- Not mine'

The viral image was viral since 2017, and is a morphed image of Ben Garrison's cartoon.

Hence, the claim that an American Cartoonist Ben Garrison drew a cartoon depicting Modi and Indian media is FALSE.