Is It True that American daily ‘The Washington Post’ really publish a cartoon making fun of Congress president Rahul Gandhi?

A Twitter user recently posted the cartoon that is widely being circulated on other social media platforms as well.

Twitter user ‘RenukaJain Chowkidar’, a financial and tax adviser, uploaded an illustration or a cartoon tagging Rahul with the claim, “Pappu is famous world wise (sic). Congratulations @RahulGandhi. Cartoon in Washington post.”

The twitter post is liked by more than 500 Twitter Users and retweeted more than 300 times.  The same is also circulating on Whatsapp and sharing on Facebook.  It was uploaded on 6th May, 2019.

What is the Truth???

We have done a detail investigation and what we find is the above claim is false.  The original pic is photoshoped to make the fun of Rahul Gandhi.

We have done a reverse search of this illustration and found it was actually made by Brooklyn-based illustrator Maritsa Patrinos. Her LinkedIn profile states she has worked with various organisations but her profile does not mention ‘The Washington Post’ at any point. After searching some more, we saw Patrinos worked extensively for BuzzFeed and on her own website.

The artist mentions that this particular illustration is part of the BuzzFeed comics.

This original illustration was also turned into various memes, something the artist herself has spoken about here.

However, the specific illustration uploaded by ‘RenukaJain Chowkidar’ could not be found on the website or Patrinos’s social media page, clearly indicating that it was photoshopped.

Rahul has lately been sporting a beard and that can be seen in the sketch. The speech bubbles in the viral post too have been changed and the crossword-like mosaic has been added for effect.

We also scanned some of the illustrations in ‘The Washington Post’ but could not find this viral cartoon.