Lighthouse Journalism found an image of Indian politician and minister of education and minister of skill development and entrepreneurship in the Government of India, Dharmendra Pradhan drawing an image of conch shell. Dharmendra Pradhan belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while he was seen drawing the symbol of Biju Janata Dal which is a regional party in Odisha.
Upon investigation it was found that the viral picture was edited. Cabinet minister, Dharmendra Pradhan was seen drawing a lotus, party symbol of BJP.
Claim:
X user Sanghamitra panda shared the viral image on her profile.
Check the archive version of the post.
Other users too are sharing the same image.
Investigation:
We started our investigation with reverse image search and found out that the person seen in the image was Dharmendra Pradhan, a member of parliament that represents Madhya Pradesh and cabinet minister for education and skill development and entrepreneurship in the government.
We then checked the social media handles of minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
After searching on his X profile, we found the original image.
The tweet mentioned that he participated in BJP’s Kanth Likhan program in North Bhubaneshwar.
We also found a few news reports about the same.
We also found a reel about the program on his Instagram profile.
Conclusion: Viral image where union minister Dharmendra Pradhan is seen drawing a different party symbol is edited. Viral image is fake.
