Fact-Check: PM Modi’s Photo Showing Photographer on the Ground Is Edited!

We found the original photo on Modi's verified Twitter account, which did not show a photographer on the ground.

Users are sharing a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which shows a photographer lying on the ground to click his picture.

(Source: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)

A photograph showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi walking with folded hands, while a photographer is clicking his picture by laying down on the ground, is being shared on social media.

Users are sharing it with text calling the photographer the "one man who works 18-20 hours a day, 365 days a year."

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Similar posts on social media can be seen here, here, and here.

However, we found that the photo has been edited to include the photographer.

The original photo, found on Modi's verified Twitter account, shows him paying homage at New Delhi's Gandhi Smriti on 2 October 2021.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We ran a reverse image search on the viral photo, which led us to an article by LiveMint. Its headline mentioned that PM Modi was paying homage to freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on their birth anniversaries.

In this piece, we saw a tweet shared by Modi's verified Twitter account, which had shared the same photograph as the one in the claim.

There was no photographer visible on the ground in this photo, indicating that it had been edited to add the photographer.

The original does not show a photographer on the ground.

(Source: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)

With the help of keywords, we looked for the photographers image on the internet, and came across a similar photo on stock photo website Alamy.

On flipping this photo horizontally, we found that it was the same photographer as the one seen in the edited viral image.

The photographer has been edited onto Modi's photograph.

(Source:Twitter/Alamy/Altered by The Quint)

Evidently, a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi paying respects at New Delhi's Gandhi Smriti was edited to add a photographer on the ground.

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