On January 17, BJP Karnataka tweeted a collage of images drawing comparison between 2009 and 2019 to depict the positive changes in India brought about by the Modi-led government at the Centre. Latching on to the 10yearschallenge trend currently viral on social media, in an attempt to bolster its image as a development-oriented regime, the party tweeted the photographs with the hashtag #10YEARCALLENGE by misspelling Challenge as ‘Callenge’.

BJP Mysore MP Pratap Simha was among the few individuals who have shared the image.

Interestingly, the image tweeted by the official Twitter handle of BJP Karnataka bears a logo of the Facebook page, Nation with NaMo. The post by Nation with NaMo has been shared more than 3000 times. Another Facebook page, Bharat Positive has also shared the image.

Fact-check

Using tools like Google reverse image search and Yandex image search, Alt News was able to trace back to the instances when the images were first shared on the internet.

Set 1

The image on the left represents a shot clicked during a documentary, “Vulnerable without a toilet”. The documentary was uploaded on May 23, 2014 by Video Volunteers, a global initiative that empowers disadvantaged communities with a story. A still pertaining to a documentary, based on the lack of basic sanitation facilities in a village of Varanasi district in UP, was passed off as an image from 2009. The image on the right dates back to an article published by Mint on October 11, 2011. Ironically, the image showcased by the BJP government to bolster the success of the free toilet scheme under the Swacchh Bharat initiative was originally captioned, “A woman using the toilet constructed by ‘Hyundai’ in Irungattukottai village”. The article stated that Hyundai Motor India Ltd has undertaken to construct a toilet for each of the 205 homes without sanitation facilities in the village.

Set 2

The image on the left is a representational image used in several articles. Alt News found that the image was used by a website named Green Drinks Singapore in an article published on August 7, 2012. The website has credited the image to Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves, a non-profit organization launched in 2010. On the right is an image from a 2018 article published by Down to Earth. The article stated that Swalia Bibi, who became the 20 millionth beneficiary of the Ujjwala Yojana scheme can no longer afford an LPG cylinder. Thus, the image which depicted the limitations of the scheme was ironically used to showcase its benefits.

Set 3

On the left is a representational image which has been used in several articles and blogs to depict the scarcity of electricity. We found a blog post published on January 10, 2011 which had captioned the image, “Students in the village of Tahipur in Bihar used kerosene lanterns for studying”. It was credited to a non-governmental organization named Greenpeace. Moreover, we found that the image on the right dates back to February, 2010. A Getty Image clicked by a photographer for The Mint was captioned, “Electricity in village of Bazida Zattan Village, photographed on February 24, 2010 in Karnal, India.” This claim was earlier fact-checked by The Print.



In conclusion, multiple images pertaining to the UPA tenure were used to showcase development accomplished under the BJP regime. At least two images belonging to the Congress tenure were passed off by the BJP as their achievements. Earlier, BJP Bihar had passed off a 2009 image to boast about rapid development undertaken in the last five years.

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