A before and after picture of “Varanasi” ghats with the tagline: “This is how Modi changed Varanasi in one year” has been going viral on social media, with his supporters sharing the post with glowing captions.
Guess what? Fake news!
Social Media Hoax Slayer has found that the picture is misleading. Firstly, the image isn’t of the ghats of Varanasi, it is of the ghat of Ujjain, and secondly, the river in question is not the Ganga, but the Shipra river.
The before and after picture of the ghats of the Shipra river in Ujjain had first been circulated in April 2016, which was when it had gotten cleaned ahead of the annual Kumbh Mela, a report by Daily Bhaskar states.
The report states that ahead of the kumbh mela, the entire city of Ujjain witnessed a massive cleaning drive, which included streets to ghats and roads. Pictures of the cleaning drive were then shared actively on social media.
The month-long Kumbh Mela of that year (2016) had reportedly commenced on 22 April.
Social media users who had seen the original picture before exposed the claim.
(With inputs from Social Media Hoax Slayer and Daily Bhaskar)
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