Fact Check: Cartoon Showing Gandhi Family 'Looting India' Is Morphed

A cartoon showing the Congress party and the Gandhi family in a bad light is making rounds on social media.

The cartoon shows the Congress party symbolised as a cow eating a leaf shaped like the India map. What the cow defecates goes into a bucket marked for Indian people while its milk goes into another bucket marked for the Gandhi family.

The accompanying text on the image reads, "American cartoonist Ben Garrison's depiction of the state of India. The best way to show how Congress ruled India."

Sharing the image (archive), an X user, S Gurumurthy, wrote, "Nehru to Rahul Rule couldn't have been depicted better. (sic)"

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the cartoon was edited; its original version shows India being 'looted' by foreign investors, not the Gandhi family.

Upon a reverse image search, we found the same cartoon (archive) posted by an X user in February 2021 with a similar claim.

However, in the comments, a person shared a screengrab of a 2015 Facebook post, which carried a different version that pokes fun at the Government of India's 'Make in India' initiative and not the Gandhi family. The user stated that this is the original version of the cartoon which was not created by Ben Garrison but by Amal Mehdi in 2015 targeting the BJP.

Here is a comparison of the two versions.

In the second version, which featured the artist's signature made by Mehdi, the cow is the 'Make in India' initiative supplying milk to the bucket named 'for foreign investors'. The rest is the same.

To find out if Mehdi is the artist of the second version, which is claimed to be the original unaltered cartoon, we searched for Mehdi which led us to his Facebook account. We found the altered and original version posted by Mehdi on his Facebook account on March 28, 2024. He stated in the caption that both images have been doing the rounds on social media for the past nine years. He also mentioned that he did not make money from his cartoon.

NewsMeter has reached out to Mehdi for his statement. The story will be updated as and when he responds.

We also found Ben Garrison's X account. In a 2017 post (archive), Ben clarified that he has never drawn cartoons on Indian politics, stating that the cartoons attributed to him on the topic are not his work. His website confirmed this statement, as it contained no cartoons on Indian politics, including the viral one.

Hence, we conclude that the viral cartoon showing the Gandhi family as looters of India has been altered. In the original version, the artist was taking a jibe at the government's 'Make in India initiative'. The claim is false.

Claim Review: American cartoonist Ben Garrison drew a cartoon making fun of the Gandhi family looting India under Congress' rule.

Claimed By: X users

Claim Reviewed By: NewsMeter

Claim Source: X

Claim Fact Check: False

Fact: The claim is false. The original version of the cartoon pokes fun at the government's 'Make in India' initiative and how it is helping foreign investors instead of Indians.

(This story was originally published by NewsMeter, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective)