A morphed image of an announcement by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in a Hindi daily Dainak Jagran about compensation for the riot affected areas is viral on social media.
The image has been mischievously edited to add the word "Muslim" to falsely claim that the party will compensate the Muslim riot victims only.
BOOM searched for the original newspaper and found that the announcement did not make any such segregation in terms of religion. The advertisement had a text in Hindi, which reads, "दंगा पीड़ितों की मदद हेतु" (Translation: For the help of riot victims).
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Recently, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal had declared monetary compensation for families which were affected in the riots. Delhi, since February 22, 2020, has been gripped with communal tension. The clashes that erupted on February 22 turned into violent riots by February 23. It claimed over 40 lives and left more than 200 injured.
The screenshot of the now-deleted post can be seen below and the archived version can be accessed here. By the time it was deleted, the post had garnered over 1,200 shares.
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The same image is viral on Whatsapp.
Fact Check
Upon going through the comments on the post, we found multiple Facebook users who refuted the claims that the party was in favour of only Muslim riot victims. Users also shared images of the published newspaper from the same day.
We then looked for the e-paper on the website of Dainik Jagran and found the published page of the February 29, 2020 edition.
Below is a screenshot of the same. There is no mention of Muslim in the advertisement as well.
Screenshot of the Dainik Jagran e-paper. The original paper did not mention benefits for the victims of any specific religion. See the e-paper here.
You can download the PDF here.
Furthermore, we also looked for other news reports about the help that is being provided by the AAP government. We were directed to a press conference by the chief minister of Delhi and AAP's chief Arvind Kejriwal on the aftermath of the riots. Kejriwal has nowhere mentioned any specific religion or community who were entitled to the compensation.
The press conference can be seen below.
To read more about the reliefs being provided for the victims of the riots, click here.
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