Fact Check: Man in viral image is not Babasaheb Ambedkar
An image of a young boy is widely being shared on social media. Users claim that it is the picture of young Babasaheb Ambedkar.
By Tejal Sinha
Hyderabad: An image of a young boy is widely being shared on social media. Users claim that it is the picture of young Babasaheb Ambedkar.
"Slogan of Jai Bhim. The most beloved in the world Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Ji. The most beautiful in the world Childhood photo of my Baba Saheb," reads the text.
The image is viral on Facebook.
Fact Check
The claim is False.
NewsMeter began its investigation by performing a Google Reverse Image Search. The search led us to a few media reports related to the viral claim.
According to the NDTV report published on August 15, 2012, this picture is of late leader Vilasrao Deshmukh. We also found the viral image published about the report.
On further investigation, we found a tweet by Congress leader Professor Varsha Eknath Gaikwad on April 27, 2018. In the tweet, she had stated, "Big mistake by #Maharastra Govt. @MahaDGIPR magazine #MaharashtraAhead wrongly prints Congress Leader Late Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh's childhood pic as #DrAmbedkar's childhood pic. @INCMaharashtra @INCMumbai #Congress."
She also shared an image of the page that had the viral image. The image was described as 'Dr. Ambedkar as a student'.
We lastly found the Jansatta report on April 28, 2018. According to the report, "Maharashtra government has stopped the distribution of official magazines, in which the childhood picture of Congress leader Vilas Rao Deshmukh was printed instead of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar."
Hence, it is therefore evident that the claim is False. The man in the viral image is not Dr. B.R Ambedkar but late Congress Leader Vilasrao Deshmukh.
