Suspended Oppn MPs Seen 'Eating' on Viral Photo Were Not on a Hunger Strike

They were only staging a protest against their suspension during the Winter Session of Parliament

The MPs and other Opposition leaders were staging a protest against their suspension at Parliament.

(Photo: The Quint)

A photograph of a few people assembled near the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Parliament is being shared by several social media users with a claim that it showed Opposition MPs, who were on a hunger strike, eating.

However, we found that the claim was false. The photograph shows 12 Rajya Sabha MPs who were suspended from the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament for "wilfully disrupting" the proceedings of the House. They were protesting their suspension, but were not on a hunger strike as claimed in the viral post.

CLAIM

Sharing the image, netizens said, "Save India!! Suspended MPs continue their hunger strike.. How they fool the public!! Even Gandhiji has hung his head in shame."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Archives of more such posts can be found here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We noticed that "Anil Sharma/Indian Express" was mentioned on the watermark of the photograph. We then looked up the photographer and found the photo posted on his Instagram account.

The caption of the image said, "Suspended Rajya Sabha MPs having their lunch during protest in Parliament on Wednesday."

A link to the photograph can be found here.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

Taking a cue from the caption, we looked for news reports on the suspension of the MPs.

We found a news report from 29 November that spoke about the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs for their 'unruly conduct' in the House during the tumultuous Winter Session of Parliament.

The following day, Opposition leaders boycotted the Lok Sabha over the suspension of 12 MPs.

The MPs included CPM's Elamaram Kareem, Congress' Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, R Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh, CPI's Binoy Viswam, TMC's Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri, and Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi and Anil Desai.

Leaders from the Opposition parties had staged a daily sit-in protest beside the Gandhi statue on the Parliament premises. But no news report said anything about them being on a hunger strike.

Evidently, the photograph was shared with a misleading claim that they were seen eating during the 'hunger strike'.

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