Congress Black Dress Protest against the price rise was falsely linked with the puja of Ram Mandir
Claim
Never forget & let your future generation know the truth 5 August 2020 when the foundation puja of Shri Ram Mandir was performed at Shri Ayodhya ji, @incindia along with janeyu dhari Kalanemi protest against it by wearing black clothes in Parliament This is real face of @incindia
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Explanation
With the assembly elections in five states in various parts of India coming to a close, all the party leaders and their supporters are giving it all out to campaign hard for their respective victories. Now, an image featuring Rahul Gandhi and several others in black attire in some form of protest has been shared on social media, with claims that Rahul Gandhi protested outside the Parliament on August 5, 2020, against the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Similar claim posts can be viewed here, here, and here.
What’s the truth?
A simple reverse image process using Google led us to multiple news reports from August 5, 2022, carrying the same image. This was covered by Times of India, The Wire, India TV, The Telegraph etc.
Interestingly, the protest was held on the same date as in the claims, i.e., August 5, but the year was mentioned in the claim as 2020, but this protest took place in 2022. According to The News Minute, a nation-wide protest was organised by the Congress against the price rise, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) hike on essential items, and unemployment. Several other news items confirm the same too, and the foundation stone for Ayodhya was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 5, 2020, a full two years earlier than when this picture was taken.
This further clarifies that the Congress has staged a protest wearing black outfits against the price rise, unemployment, and other issues on August 5, 2022, rather than against the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Conclusion:
The claims stating that the Congress protested against the foundation puja of Shri Ram Temple are false. In reality, the protest was against unemployment, price hikes, and GST. Also, this happened on August 5, 2022, when the viral image was actually taken, not on August 5, 2020.
