On June 23, Punjab Chief Minister and Congress leader informed on Twitter that he had recently met the officers of Sikh Regiment, where he had served before joining politics. Although he didn’t mention the date and location of the meeting, he shared three photographs in Tweet, which showed that he met the army officers at a helipad.
However, now the photographs posted by Amarinder Singh have raised questions, as several netizens have pointed out that they look like badly edited. The visible edits made in the images create the impression that the photo of the CM was inserted in photos of the army officers.
In the first image, the CM is standing with three army officers in front of a Punjab govt helicopter. However, if one observes the photo carefully, it seems that his left elbow has some parts missing, with the shirt of the officer standing next to him visible where the CM’s elbow should have been. The edges on the body of the CM are blurry, compared to the officers in the photo, suggesting that a digital eraser was used to remove the background from the original photo, and in the process, part of his elbow also got removed by mistake.
The second image shows Captain Amarinder Singh extending his hand to a Sikh Regiment officer. But in this photo also, the edges of his body do not look natural, as they look blurry compared to others in the photo. There is a thin grey line next to his kurta, indicating that the background was removed from his photo to paste his image with the army officers.
In the third photo, the CM is shaking hands with an officer, and this photo also carries signs of modification. While there is green grass next to the helipad, and a line of trees behind the grassland, they disappear abruptly behind Amarinder Singh’s head. On the right side of the photo, one can see a clear blue sky directly behind him. But if one sees the rest of the photograph, the patch of grassland and the trees behind it should have been there on that side of the photo also. In front of Singh’s face also, the top of the treeline appears blurry. This indicates that that the image was digitally edited and the editors failed to recreate the background correctly.
Several Twitter uses pointed out these anomalies in the photographs posted by Captain Amarinder Singh, questioning whether the CM had posted photoshopped images.
There seem to a consensus on Twitter that the photos are Photoshopped, as almost all replies to the tweet sayi the same. Making the matter more complicated, there is no media or social media report about the Punjab CM meeting Sikh Regiment officers recently.
It is not sure why the Punjab CM posted seemingly fake or edited images of his meeting with army officers. Did he actually not met the officers and his image was inserted in the photos, or he had met but the photos needed digital modifications for some reason, it will not be known unless the CM or his office issues a clarification on the issue.