An image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, standing next to a bride, has been falsely shared on social media as a picture of his wedding to Jashodaben Narendra Modi.
The woman in the picture has been misidentified as Modi’s wife. She’s actually the daughter of the former Gujarat minister for law and technical education and MLA from Surat, late Hemant Chapatwala.
The Quint spoke to Chapatwala’s son, Keyur, who confirmed that the woman standing next to Modi is his sister, Alpa Chapatwala. The wedding took place on 14 July 1994.
CLAIM
The picture was revived by journalist Swati Chaturvedi, who shared the image in a now deleted tweet, with the caption, “Does this look like a forced child marriage took you? Yet, Modi never declared this on his mandatory declaration as Gujarat CM”
A screenshot of her deleted tweets were shared by another user on Twitter.
The image has been shared by several sites like news aggregator Daily Hunt and SamacharJagat, identifying the woman in the picture as Jashodaben Modi. Wikipedia also carries the image as a file photo of Jashodaben Modi.
Users have also shared this picture on Facebook with the same claim.
The image was also shared by National Spokesperson of Indian National Congress (INC), Pawan Khera in 2014, with the claim that it shows Modi and his wife.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We went through the replies on Pawan Khera’s 2014 tweet, where a Twitter user claimed that the image was of late Hemant Chapatwala’s daughter.
The National Organising Secretary of ABVP, Ashish Chauhan, had also stated the same in a tweet in April 2014.
We found Chapatwala’s son, Keyur Hemant Chapatwala, on Facebook. He had shared the same image on 14 April 2014, with the caption that read: “Rare Picture of Modiji attending Marriage of My Sister Alpa way back in 1994. Needed to clarify due to false messages & rumors being spread intensely in social media about shri Narendra Modiji in this Pic. (sic)”
Speaking to The Quint, Keyur Chapatwala stated, “The woman next to Modiji is Alpaben, my sister. The fifth man from the left is Utpal Vankawala, her husband. The wedding took place on 14 July 1994.”
He also told that the image shows the following people from left to right:
- Fakirbhai Chauhan, then mayor of Surat
- Narendra Modi
- Alpa Chapatwala (Keyur’s sister)
- Damleji, a RSS Prant Pracharak
- Utpal Vankawala (Keyur’s brother-in-law, Alpa’s husband)
- Late Kashiram Rana, Member of Parliament
He also shared more pictures from the wedding with The Quint, where Modi can be seen in the same outfit.
Evidently, the woman in the viral image has been misidentified as PM Modi’s wife, Jashodaben.
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