With reports circulating about Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann being deplaned from a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Delhi, an image of a purported news clipping from 'The German Times,' which mentions the same incident is being widely shared on social media.
The clipping mentions that this happened because the CM was too drunk and not in the condition to board a flight. It further mentions that this incident delayed the flight by around four hours.
However, this particular news clipping is satirical. The same has not been clarified by the publication.
For the veracity of the incident, Lufthansa Airlines has said that the delay happened "due to a delayed inbound flight and an aircraft change."
The chief minister was on an eight-day trip to Germany where he also attended an international trade fair, Drinktec 2022, being held in Munich.
These claims were shared on social media to take a dig at Aam Aadmi Party and mock the Punjab CM for his behaviour. The party spokesperson, Malvinder Singh Kang, has termed it "fake news."
CLAIM
The claim suggests that the article about CM Mann being drunk was published in The German Times. Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh media panelist, Prashant Umrao, has also shared the viral. The tweet was later deleted.
The post was shared with a caption in Hindi, "दिल्ली और पंजाब की जनता को बधाई। आम आदमी पार्टी के मुख्यमंत्री के चर्चे जर्मनी तक पहुंचे। "
(Translation: Congratulations to the public of Delhi and Punjab. The conversations about Punjab CM has now reached Germany too.)
An archive of the post can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND
At first, we noticed a line towards the end of the article which mentioned, "This article is for satire." An account @BeingBHK was also tagged with the said sentence.
The line mentioning the article is for satire can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
We searched for the account on Twitter and found the same post. The bio of the account mentions, "Threads, Memes, Cartoons, Satire."
The bio of the account mentions memes and satire.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
Taking this as a cue, we looked for the article on the official website of The German Times and did not find any articles related to yesterday's incident or anything about Punjab CM.
Further, when we used the keywords, 'Daniel Schutz,' the name of the author in the viral post to search for the article, we didn't come across any results. This indicated the absence of any such article published, as claimed. The author page of the said name was not found.
No results were found.
(Source: The German Times/Screenshot)
WHAT ABOUT THE INCIDENT?
The official Twitter handle of Lufthansa News has also tweeted about the viral claim to clarify the delay about the flight and mentioned, "Our flight from Frankfurt to Delhi departed later than originally planned due to a delayed inbound flight and an aircraft change. Best regards."
The party spokesperson of AAP, Malvinder Singh Kang tweeted about the incident and called it "fake news" and an attempt to "malign" the CM. Earlier a report published by The Hindu said that Mann rescheduled the flight as he was reportedly unwell, as per an official.
With the disclaimer of the post being satirical, it becomes certain that the news clipping shared widely on social media to take a dig at CM Mann is fake.
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