No, Yogi Adityanath Was Not Intentionally Blurred Out of This Video With PM Modi

Yogi Adityanath was not deliberately blurred from the video of PM Modi offering prayers in Varanasi.

A video of a news bulletin, showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath performing religious rites at a temple, has gone viral on social media platforms.

What are users claiming?: Those sharing the video are claiming that the video intentionally blurred Yogi Adityanath's face in the background, showing PM Modi's "narcissism."

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also shared the video with a similar claim in Hindi.

(Archived versions of more claims can be seen here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No, UP CM Yogi Adityanath was not intentionally blurred out of the video.

• We found other versions of this clip on the internet, including one on PM Modi's YouTube channel, where Yogi Adityanath is clearly visible.

How did we find out the truth?: We noticed that the video in the claim carried a logo on the upper-right corner, which reads 'Hindi Khabar Digital.'

Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search to look for their presence on the internet.

• This led us to their YouTube channel, which carried a video of PM Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath.

• While it did not carry the section seen in the claim, this video, too, was blurred in the same area.

• However, it did not blur out or hide Yogi Adityanath's face.

• The video's title and caption mentioned that it showed PM Modi in Varanasi, before he filed his nomination papers for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

• With this, we looked for more visuals from the event on PM Modi's verified YouTube channel.

• A 'live' video on his channel carried visuals of PM Modi performing aarti at the Kashi Vishwanath temple, where Yogi Adityanath's face was clearly visible in the video.

Channel clarifies: On its X account, Hindi News Digital carried the viral video and explained that the blurred block was not put there to deliberately blur out Yogi Adityanath's face.

• Responding to Shrinate's claim, the post read, "The referenced clip had a very large logo of news agency ANI. That logo was blurred by a trainee journalist working in 'Hindi Khabar' digital, not Yogiji's face.

हे कंफ्यूज़्ड कांग्रेस की मंथरा मौसी, फेक न्यूज़ फैलाते फैलाते आप मानसिक रूप से बहुत बीमार हो गई हैं. बाबा काशी विश्वनाथ जी से प्रार्थना है कि आपकी समस्त मानसिक व्याधियों को शीघ्र ही ठीक करें. संदर्भित क्लिप ANI न्यूज़ एजेन्सी के काफी बड़े आकार के Logo के साथ थी. 'हिन्दी ख़बर'… https://t.co/tX0FXWposT pic.twitter.com/MqRUztibHQ

— हिन्दी ख़बर | Hindi Khabar 🇮🇳 (@HindiKhabar) May 14, 2024

To verify this, we looked for the video shared by ANI, which we found on their YouTube channel.

On comparing the visual in the claim with the one shared on ANI's YouTube channel, we could see that the viral video was trying to blur out ANI's logo, not Yogi Adityanath's face.

(Swipe to view the visual comparison.)

We noticed that 'Hindi Khabar' has blurred out ANI's logo in other bulletins on their channel, one of which can be seen below, with more instances here, here, and here.

Conclusion: A video of PM Modi and Yogi Adityanath is being shared to falsely claim that the latter was intentionally blurred out in the video.

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