Picture of Sri Lankan opposition party's Labour Day display altered to include president's portrait
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on May 9, 2023 at 11:19
- 4 min read
- By AFP Sri Lanka
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The picture showing the JVP's Labour Day rally was posted to a Facebook page with more than 17,000 followers.
It was shared a day after Labour Day -- known locally as "May Day" -- which, according to local media, several political parties and trade unions marked by holding rallies and processions (archived link).
The picture shared on social media shows several vehicles each bearing a red star and carrying a large framed portrait on the roof.
The portraits are of German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and the JVP's founder Rohana Wijeweera (archived link).
The picture also appears to show a car carrying the partially obscured portrait of Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who leads the JVP's rival United National Party.
Sinhala-language text on the image reads: "Comrades remembering and paying tribute to those who supported them."
The Facebook post's caption says: "Take a look at the last one [photo]."
The same picture was also shared hundreds of times elsewhere on Facebook here and here.
Some comments left by users indicated they believed the JVP had included Wickremesinghe's portrait in their rally.
"They lambaste Ranil on stage and then carry his photo in the rally. They are all deal-makers," read one comment.
Another said: "Not surprising at all. The JVP leader does Ranil's bidding in secret."
A similar image -- with the portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Wijeweera replaced with portraits of former presidents Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena, and former Army chief turned politician Sarath Fonseka -- was also shared in other Facebook posts here and here on May 3.
Sinhala-language text above the image reads: "JVP's May Day rally that expressed gratitude by not forgetting the past." The post's caption reads: "Thank you comrade."
But the JVP -- which has openly criticised Wickremesinghe in the past, as reported here and here by local media -- did not include a portrait of the president in its rally (archived links here and here).
The images have been altered.
A reverse image search on Google led to a photo published on the Facebook page of JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake on May 1 (archived link).
The post's caption reads: "Red May Day rally."
The photo shows there were only four black vehicles carrying portraits at the start of the rally, with Marx's portrait above the first vehicle and the portrait of Wijeweera on the final vehicle.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared on social media (left) and the photo published online by Dissanayake (right):
The same photo was also on the JVP's official Facebook page on May 2 (archived link)
This Facebook page also livestreamed the Labour Day rally here (archived link). The vehicles carrying the portraits can be seen from the 59-minute, 15-second mark to the 59-minute, 58-second mark.
No vehicle carrying a portrait of Wickremesinghe is seen in the footage.
JVP spokesperson Upul Ranjan also told AFP the pictures circulated on social media had been "photoshopped".
Ranjan said on the phone on May 8: "Our vehicle parade featured photos of Marx, Engels, Lenin and our founder Rohana Wijeweera. There were no photos of any Sri Lankans not affiliated with our party."
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