A morphed screenshot of Aaj Tak’s news bulletin has gone viral on social media to falsely claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government gave 150 crore people employment during the coronavirus lockdown.
A screenshot of the bulletin dated 8 April 2021 has been edited to include the fake text. The bulletin instead carries the prime minister’s address on the rising cases of COVID-19 during his conference with the chief ministers. He explained the reasoning behind night curfew and announced the ‘Tika Utsav’ for mass vaccination across the country.
CLAIM
The screenshot was shared on Facebook by several users.
Archived versions of similar posts on Facebook can be viewed here, here, and here.
The screenshot was also shared by several users on Twitter, including a user called Seema Potdar, who identifies herself as the Congress’ General Secretary of ‘Maharashtra Pradesh Social Media’.
WHAT WE FOUND
A reverse image search of PM Modi’s image in the viral image led us to a video on his official YouTube channel, ‘Narendra Modi’, dated 8 April 2021 in which he announces ‘Tika Utsav’ from 11 April to 14 April.
Taking hints from this, we searched Aaj Tak’s YouTube channel for its news bulletin on the PM’s address and found the original bulletin, “PM Modi Live | PM Modi On Covid Crisis Live | Coronavirus News Live | Aaj Tak Live”, dated, 8 April 2021.
We found that the screenshot has been taken at the time stamp 34:09 from the original bulletin. The ticker at the bottom has the same text as the viral screenshot along with the time on the clock ‘20:40.’
However, the text next to PM Modi’s image has been changed from, “11 अप्रैल से 14 अप्रैल तक टीका उत्सव मनाएं हम” (Translation: “We will celebrate Tika Utsav from 11 April to 14 April”) to “कोरोना-काल मे लॉकडाउन के समय भाजपा सरकार ने डेढ़ सौ करोड़ लोगों को रोजगार दिया: PM मोदी” (Translation: “At the time of lockdown in Corona-era, BJP government gave employment to 150 crore people: PM Modi”)
The text at the bottom has also been changed in the viral screenshot to “दोबारा लोकडाउन करने की संभावना” (Translation: “Possibility of lockdown again”) which is in direct contradiction to the PM’s address on the importance of night curfews and micro-containment zones to prevent the need for another lockdown.
Further, we found no mention of employment generated by the government during the coronavirus lockdown in the PM’s address. In fact, we found no credible news reports quoting PM Modi on giving employment to 150 crore people during the lockdown.
Evidently, a screenshot of Aaj Tak’s bulletin has been morphed to attribute false quotes to PM Modi.
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