Old photo of Shashi Tharoor shared as first image of Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kerala

Hyderabad: An image of Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor sitting with a group of women is being shared with the claim that it is the first image of Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kerala.

The Congress party has undertaken the 3,500 km foot-march to connect with the people and revive the party. The march, under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, started from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on 7 September and is scheduled to end in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.

Making a sarcastic comment about Mr. Tharoor, a Facebook user shared the image and wrote, "First image of Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kerala and as usual Guru Ji (Tharoor) is busy." (Translated)

Several Facebook users have shared the photo with the same claim. (Click here, here, and here to see the posts.)

Fact Check

NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found that Shashi Tharoor had tweeted the photo on 22 August 2019. According to the tweet, the pictures are from his annual lecture at the Bucerius Summer School on Global Governance.

Hence, the claim that the viral image is from the Bharat Jodo Yatra is false.

Several fake claims regarding the Bharat Jodo Yatra are circulating on social media. NewsMeter has debunked several of these fake claims.

1. A photo of Rahul Gandhi hugging a girl during the Bharat Jodo Yatra was shared with the false claim that the girl is Amulya Leona who was booked for raising the slogan "Pakistan Zindabad."

2. A morphed photo of Rahul Gandhi with other Congress leaders eating at an eatery during the march was shared with the false claim that he was eating beef.

3. A video of Freedom March organised by the Congress party in Bengaluru, Karnataka on 15 August, was falsely shared as a video of the Bharat Jodo Yatra..