Jawaharlal Nehru has been favourite target for fake news with several invented stories, quotes, incidents and photoshopped pictures claiming to provide an accurate account of his life.
A photograph claiming to show the ‘real face’ of Jawaharlal Nehru is photoshopped, ironically. The fake photo accompanied by Hindi text was featured in websites such as India Times (2014) and APHerald (2016) in the past.
The media must be free and fair, uninfluenced by corporate or state interests. That's why you, the public, need to pay to keep news free.
ContributeWhile India Times cropped the text out of the image, AP Herald included it, which begs the question why someone publishing the photo did not stop to question its authenticity. The Hindi text roughly translates as ‘So much lust in those eyes that even a dog would be embarrassed. In the fight for independence, there’s a limit to being a rascal’.
Source: India Times
Source: AP Herald
We used the reverse image search feature to trace the original photo and found the exact same image which did not include Nehru.
The original photo appears on a number of WordPress sites and other blogs in posts about vintage photos of ‘Chorus Girls’.
Source: WordPress
Chorus Girls was a theatrical musical in the United States that drew inspiration from dance forms such as burlesque and ballet. (Read more about it here – Ziegfeld Girl: Image and Icon in Culture and Cinema)
Jawaharlal Nehru has been favourite target for fake news with several invented stories, quotes, incidents and photoshopped pictures claiming to provide an accurate account of his life and role in India’s struggle for independence. There are several candid and genuine photos of Nehru with members of the opposite sex but this particular image is fake.
This article has been re-published with the permission of BOOM. Visit the website here.
General elections are around the corner, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans together to focus on the issues that really matter to the voter. From political funding to battleground states, media coverage to 10 years of Modi, choose a project you would like to support and power our journalism.
Ground reportage is central to public interest journalism. Only readers like you can make it possible. Will you?