Claim
A morphed cartoon by Assam-based cartoonist Amal Medhi has been falsely credited to American political cartoonist Ben Garrison. The morphed cartoon peddles the narrative that the Gandhi family has been milking the Indian National Congress party. A text with the cartoon reads, “Amazing cartoon by American cartoonist Ben Garrison which tells story of past 70 years.” (Original text in Hindi: अमेरिकी कार्टूनिस्ट बेन गैरिसन ने अपने इस कार्टून में 70 साल की कहानी बयाँ कर दी)
Fact
An alternative version of the same cartoon went viral in 2019. BOOM reached out to Ben Garrison who denied having created any such cartoon. Garrison’s team clarified to BOOM, “This is not a Ben Garrison cartoon and not even close to Ben’s art style. All of Ben’s cartoons are at grrrgraphics.com and if you do not see that cartoon there, you know it is fake.” BOOM found the cartoon was created by Amal Mehdi, who told us, “I know it is my Make In India Cartoon that has been photoshopped several times by several political parties to suit a campaign. It was a cartoon that I made and posted on Facebook four years ago. I did not share it with any newspaper. Neither did I use it for any magazine,” Medhi clarified.