An image of President Ram Nath Kovind walking along with Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the inauguration ceremony of Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad has gone viral on social media with the misleading claim that the President was not walking on the red carpet while Shah was.
We found that the viral image has been taken out of context to weave a misleading narrative, while the entire footage shows President Kovind walking on the red carpet.
CLAIM
The claim along with the image reads: “यह देश के राष्ट्पति हैं जो जहाँपनाह मोदी और गब्बर अमित शाह के लिए लाल कार्पेट छोड़ कर खुद नीचे चल रहे हैं देश ऐसे गुलाम राष्ट्रपति को पाकर धन्य हो गया ||”
(Translated: The president of the country has left the red carpet for Modi and Amit Shah, and is walking on the floor. The country is blessed to have such a slave president.)
Several social media users shared the image on Facebook and Twitter with similar claims.
The Quint received a query on the claim being made in the viral image on its WhatsApp tipline as well.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
Since the screenshot had NDTV’s logo, we searched on YouTube with relevant keywords and came across a bulletin uploaded by the channel on 24 February.
The viral visual, which is from the inauguration of Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, can be seen in the bulletin at 03:12 minutes.
However, to understand the series of events that happened after airing the viral visual, we watched the live footage of the event that was uploaded on DD National.
We found that at 04:46 minutes, President Kovind begins walking towards the red carpet, at 04:49 and 04:50 minutes, one can see him walking on the red carpet as he, along with Union Minister Amit Shah begin to take a turn.
The same sequence of events can also be seen from 05:04 minutes in an India Today bulletin.
Furthermore, we found several instances of President Kovind walking on the red carpet in the said event.
Evidently, the viral visual showing President Kovind walking off the red carpet while Home Minister Amit Shah walking on it during the inauguration ceremony of Narendra Modi Stadium, lacks context.
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