An edited image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statue with a giant kettle pouring water over it has gone viral on social media with the false claim that it was installed at a ‘Narendra Modi Chowk.’
We found that an image of Modi’s marble statue being sold online has been edited onto another image of a cup and kettle fountain installed at the Station Chowk in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The hoarding which says, ‘Narendra Modi Chowk,’ is from a 2018 image from Darbhanga, Bihar.
CLAIM
The image was shared along with the caption, “निंदनीय ये हो क्या रहा है, जीते जी किसी के नाम के चौक-चौराहे,स्टेडियम-अस्पताल की परंपरा हमारे देश में नही रही !!”
(Translation: “Condemnable, whatever is happening. The tradition of square-intersection, stadium-hospital in the name of someone who’s still alive, is not in our country.”)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On a reverse image search we came across the original image on a website called ‘urdupoint.’
The original image shows a giant kettle and cup installation at the Station Chowk in Faisalabad, Pakistan. A comparison of the two images can be seen below.
We also found the location of Station Chowk on Google Earth, which also showed a Station Chowk Masjid in the vicinity.
Images of the mosque on Google Maps and Flickr also show the fountain from a different angle.
Another reverse image search after cropping PM Modi’s statue from the image led us to a 3-foot ‘Marble Narendra Modi Statue’ being sold on online shopping website India Mart.
We then performed a keyword search of ‘Narendra Modi Chowk,’ which led us to a news report by NDTV, dated 19 March 2018, carrying an image of the hoarding seen at the back of the statue in the viral image.
The image had been attributed to BJP leader Giriraj Singh’s Twitter account, who had shared the photo on 17 March 2018.
According to the report, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders had alleged that the father of a party-worker was murdered over the naming of a square after PM Modi in Bihar’s Darbhanga. However, the police had refuted these claims, stating the murder was a case of land dispute.
Further, we found no credible news reports on any newly installed statue of the prime minister or a chowk being named after him.
Evidently, an image of an intersection in Pakistan has been edited to falsely claim that a ‘Narendra Modi Chowk’ had come up with the PM’s statue.
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