Painting behind Rahul and Sonia’s viral selfie is not Jesus Christ

A recent selfie shared by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi after casting their votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections went viral on social media. However, some right-wing users took the chance and started sharing the photo with false claims that a painting of Jesus Christ, the central figure of Christianity, is visible in the background of their room.

The right-wing wing trolls shared the photograph and took a dig at Gandhi calling himself a ‘janeudhari brahmin’, (thread-wearing Brahmin) while claiming that he had a photo of Jesus Christ in his room, but none of the Hindu Gods.

Amid the uproar among the right-wing ecosystem on social media, multiple fact-checking started digging into the sources and debunked this assertion, confirming that the painting is not typical of portraits of Jesus Christ but rather a work titled “Madonna Oriflamma” by the Russian artist Nicholas Roerich. 

The artwork was created in 1932, it depicts a lady holding a white banner with red dots in between, symbolising peace. The painting is currently on display at the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York.

Right-wing trolls share photo

Mr Sinha, a right-wing social media user known for posting fake and communally-charged misinformation, shared the photo on X with the caption “Janeudhari Brahmin” Rahul Gandhi has Jesus’s picture in his room…. No picture of Hindu gods in the same room…Nice!!!! (sic).”

Subsequently, several troll accounts started flooding the platform with the photo with the same misleading claims.