A pamphlet featuring a photograph of former Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal wearing a skull cap, depicting him as a “Messiah of Muslims” has gone viral on social media.
The pamphlet, written in Hindi, reads, “Muslim people of Delhi, vote for Kejriwal for the betterment of the community. Kejriwal is the messiah of the community. Voting for Modi is like digging the graves of your community. Vote for the community.” It concludes by stating, “The right of the common people: A true Muslim.”
The photo is circulating on multiple social media platforms, including X, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. An X user shared it with the caption, “Like Maharashtra, in Delhi too, fatwas have started coming in support of Maulana Kejriwal… (sic).”
Another X user wrote, “Look at the Hindus of Delhi. Then don’t say I didn’t tell you (sic).” At the time of this writing this story, the post had amassed over 230,000 views and more than 4,700 shares. Archived versions of this and other similar posts can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
However, we found that the viral pamphlet originated in 2020 and is unrelated to the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections on 5 February.
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What are the facts?
A reverse image search of the viral photo led us to multiple similar photos uploaded by various social media users and news outlets in 2020.
A Hindi news report published by Aaj Tak on 6 February 2020, headlined, “Delhi Elections 2020: Pamphlet with Kejriwal’s photo goes viral, reads – Messiah of Muslims” featured a similar image, indicating that the viral photo is not recent.
The report stated that the pamphlets describing Kejriwal as the “Messiah of Muslims” and urging people to vote for AAP for the betterment of the community were distributed along with the newspapers before the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections.
We also noted the dateline on a newspaper placed below the pamphlet that reads “Thursday, February 06, 2020,” unlike the dateline in the viral photograph, which appeared to be cropped. This further suggests that the viral photo originated in 2020 and is not recent.
An X user ‘@vimal_thinks’ also uploaded a similar photo on 6 February 2020 (archived here) and wrote, “@ArvindKejriwal They came to change politics, what are they doing? They say that they don’t care about Hindus and Muslims, then what is this 🤔 ? The newspaper guy left with Hindustan Times 😓 (sic).”
Furthermore, we did not find any report that indicated whether the pamphlet was distributed by the AAP or any other organisation in 2020.
AAP leader Jasmine Shah called it “blatant misinformation” and told Logically Facts, “No, we have never circulated such pamphlets.”
The verdict
The viral pamphlets circulating on social media depicting Arvind Kejriwal as a “Messiah of Muslims” are false. The viral photo originated in 2020 and is unrelated to the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.
This story was originally published by Logically Facts as part of the Shakti Collective. Apart from the headline, excerpt and introduction, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.